Hits & Misses: Rampaging Hanekom and Krappie's costly brainfart

OPINION: The South African derby weekend certainly delivered in Round Three of the United Rugby Championship.

In Cape Town, the Stormers denied the Sharks an opportunity to make it three wins on the trot (and three against them) as they soared to a comprehensive 39-22 victory, while the Bulls hammered the Lions 57-15 in Pretoria to hand them their first defeat of the season.

The returning Springboks played a massive role in the success of the Stormers and the Bulls, while there were also Boks who would have hoped for a stronger outing, like props Ox Nche and Thomas du Toit who failed to make the impact everybody expected at scrum time.

*Also read: Sharks boss’ take on scrum struggles against Stormers

With the URC taking a one-week break to accommodate the opening round of the Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup next weekend, a positive result would certainly have been the goal for all teams.

We look at the highs and lows from Round Three of the URC.

Hits:

Stormers’ set-piece salvation

Granted, there was nothing wrong with the Stormers’ scrum against Edinburgh, but their line-out deserved its own chapter on ‘set-piece malfunction’.

One of the worst things about their defeat in Scotland was that they could have certainly come away with a win and made it two-out-of-two in Europe after beating Connacht in the opening round.

Their maul is one of their biggest strengths, and the fact that they couldn’t even secure their own throw-ins at the line-out made a powerful maul nothing more than a pipedream.

In their first game at home, however, they sure made up for it.

The Stormers owned the scrums, with Wilco Louw and Ntuthuko Mchunu humiliating Nche and Du Toit, who conceded a handful of scrum penalties in the first half alone.

The Sharks got no relief in the second 40, with the Stormers getting a pushover try early on after the break.

Their line-out improvement, however, was key.

With Andre Hugo-Venter back in the starting berth, there was promise of an improved line-out, and it delivered, with the hosts winning 15 of their 16 throws, while they poached three of the Sharks’.

John Dobson’s men also scored two tries from powerful drives to the back end of the first half.

Those weren’t the only ones, and seeing one of the Stormers’ biggest strengths back to its full potency was a highlight in their superb effort.

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Even Dobson didn’t see this coming!
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Sacha finding his groove

Of all the good the Stormers produced in their win over the Sharks after taking two straight losses to their coastal rivals last season, the performance of the Springbok flyhalf was one of the finest.

The uber-talented flyhalf struggled against the All Blacks and looked rusty in the one-off Test against Los Pumas prior to the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour after returning from injury.

Against the Sharks, however, he was back to his best as he pulled the strings brilliantly and looked confident in a man-of-the-match performance.

The Springbok coaching staff have lots to be happy with after the South African derbies, and the performance of Feinberg-Mngomezulu is at the very top of that list.

Cameron’s commanding composite

No man stood taller than Hanekom in the Bulls’ demolition of the Lions.

He was a force.

His two tries were the cherry on top of a fantastic performance, and while his charge around the blindside of a ruck before brushing aside Richard Kriel with a highlights reel-worthy hand-off and 9bursting over the try line was a top moment in the match, he did so much more than that.

He made 76 metres with ball in hand, beat two defenders, and completed eight tackles. But it was the ferocity of those hits and contact situations that added real impact to his game.

If the goal was to be one of the best Boks on show, mission accomplished.

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REACTION: The reason behind Bulls’ win over Lions
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Misses:

Lions’ costly yellow

While the Bulls dominated most areas, the Lions were very much in it until a yellow card to Springbok scrumhalf Morne van den Berg saw them reduced to 14 men in the 26th minute.

It was a moment of madness from Van den Berg, who slapped the ball from Paul de Wet’s grasp as the Bulls were surging towards the try line.

Johan Grobbelaar got the try anyway, and Van den Berg was sent to the sin bin to boot.

From there on, the Bulls ran away with it, scoring two tries through Hanekom in Van den Berg’s absence.

It was a crushing loss for the Lions after a fantastic start to the season, with victories over the Ospreys and reigning champions Leinster in the first two rounds.