Stormers' stern warning to Bulls
PRE-SEASON REPORT: The Stormers ran in 13 tries in a comprehensive 87-5 victory against Boland in a pre-season clash in Wellington on Friday.
It was an impressive way to end the pre-season preparations for Head Coach Robbie Fleck’s charges, who face the Bulls in their Super Rugby opener at Loftus Versfeld next week.
It did not take long for the Stormers to find their feet on attack, Pieter-Steph du Toit skipping through a gap to put JD Schickerling over for the opening try early on.
The Stormers were keeping it as direct as possible in the early exchanges and that paid off as No.8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe crashed through to score after a number of dominant phases in the opposition 22.
At the 20-minute water break the score was 21-0, with SP Marais taking a quick tap to dive over for the third try and then converting himself.
The fourth try was a brilliant individual effort as Marais found some space at the back with a clever chip on a counter-attack, then collected himself and stepped the last defender for a memorable try.
The Stormers kept the pressure on and when Boland coughed the ball up in their own 22, scrumhalf Justin Phillips was on hand to pounce and feed replacement prop Neethling Fouche for the try.
It was another pass from Phillips that set up the next try too, as he found JJ Engelbrecht in space on the right wing. His inside ball to Ruhan Nel saw the outside centre gallop free before dummying the last defender to score.
The seventh try came on the stroke of half-time as captain Siya Kolisi dived over to make it 49-0 at the break.
They brought up the half-century early in the second half, with young wing Nico Leonard diving over in the corner after some quick hands in the backline and hard work up front from the forwards which had laid the platform.
The home team got on the scoreboard with a breakaway try from fullback Gavern Skippers, but those were to be their only points of the match.
Both Schickerling and Leonard got over for their second tries before replacements Juarno Augustus and Jaco Coetzee (twice) also crossed the whitewash as the floodgates opened up in the final stages.
The scorers:
For Boland:
Try: Skippers
For Stormers:
Tries: Schickerling 2, Notshe, Marais 2, Fouche, Nel, Kolisi, Leonard 2, Augustus, Coetzee 2
Cons: Marais 4, Willemse 3, Du Plessis 4
Boland: 15 Gavern Skippers, 14 Juandre Joseph, 13 Michaine Fick, 12 Wayne Smith, 11 Valentino Wellman, 10 Monty Dumond, 9 Ricardo Duarttee, 8 Patrick O’Brien, 7 Kenan Cronje, 6 Tapiwa Tsomondo, 5 Johannes Janse van Rensburg, 4 Marlyn Williams (captain), 3 Clinton Theron, 2 Neil Rautenbach, 1 Arnout Malherbe
Replacements: 16 Francois Esterhuyzen, 17 Theunis Nieuwoudt, 18 Clarence van Wyk, 19 Robyn Adams, 20 Deejee Putter, 21 Taine-Randall Booysen, 22 Thurlow Marsh, 23 Vincent Fredericks, 24 Gurshwin Africa, 25 Sherwin Cupido, 26 Garrick Mattheus, 27 Wilneth Engelbrecht, 28 Andries Viljoen, 29 Givan Adams, 30 Shilton van Wyk.
Stormers: 15 Craig Barry, 14 JJ Engelbrecht, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 SP Marais, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Justin Phillips, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Chris van Zyl, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Juarno Augustus, 22 Kobus van Dyk, 23 Herschel Jantjies, 24 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 25 Sihle Njezula, 26 Dan du Plessis, 27 Dan Kriel, 28 Nico Leonard.
Source: @THESTORMERS
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