Province spoil Stormers' Varsity party
PRE-SEASON REPORT: The Stormers secured hard-fought wins over CPUT, UCT, and Maties, however, fell short against their provincial side Western Province.
A 28-man Stormers squad took to the field to face University teams UCT, Maties, CPUT and a WP XV as part of a festival of rugby hosted by Tygerberg RFC.
John Dobson’s side had several players with Super Rugby experience such as Jean-Luc du Plessis, Godlen Masimla, Chad Solomon, Ernst van Rhyn, Ali Vermaak, Chris van Zyl and Leolin Zas, as well as former Springbok Hilton Lobberts who has returned to the Western Cape to play club rugby.
Also read: Lobberts gets a shot with Stormers
Stormers 10-5 CPUT
Wing Sihle Njezula got on the scoreboard early on and hooker Schalk Erasmus followed up with a maul try in sweltering conditions.
The free-running CPUT scored one of their own against the run of play and showed that they are a significant threat on the counter-attack.
Stormers 10-15 WP XV
Five tries in an action-packed 20 minutes as the local club players gave absolutely everything in the heat of the day.
There were tries from Stormers scrumhalf Deon Carstens and centre Cornel Smit, but they were outscored by the WP XV, with wing Sinethemba Mapaqa from Hamiltons, Jayden Hanlso from Tygerberg and No.8 Joel Paarwater from UWC all crossing the whitweash in a spirited display.
Stormers 5-0 UCT
Wit the wind starting to play more of a role at Florida Park towards the end of the day, the Stormers had their defence tested against UCT.
A break from fullback Abner van Reenen set up field position for a maul try in the corner from hooker Schalk Erasmus.
While UCT enjoyed most of possession, the Stormers defence held out well under pressure.
Stormers 10-5 Maties
The Stormers started on the front foot and the pressure on the Stellenbosch side told as Leolin Zas grabbed an intercept to race away.
Maties got over for a try of their own when Stormers prop Neethling Fouche was shown a yellow card, but the Stormers took control of the final stages, with centre Matt Moore crashing over the line for the final five-pointer of the day.
Stormers Varsity Day squad: Kwenzo Blose, Deon Carstens, Ben-Jason Dixon, Lucky Dlepu, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Schalk Erasmus, Brendon Esterhuizen, Neethling Fouche, Hannes Gous, Michal Haznar, Lyle Hendricks, Thys Kitshoff, David Kriel, Hilton Lobberts, Leon Lyons, Godlen Masimla, David Meihuizen, Matt Moore, Juan Mostert, Sihle Njezula, Sazi Sandi, Cornel Smit, Chad Solomon, Abner van Reenen, Ernst van Rhyn, Chris van Zyl, Ali Vermaak, Nama Xaba, Leolin Zas.
Varsity Day results:
Maties 15-10 CPUT
Stormers 10-5 CPUT
WP XV 15-10Stormers
UCT 15-5 WP XV
Maties 10-5 UCT
WP XV 25-0 Maties
WP XV 0-0 CPUT
UCT 15-0 CPUT
Stormers 5-0 UCT
Stormers 10-5 Maties
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Photo credit: @callsignvector
