Ruhan Nel addresses a concerning 'trend' in Stormers' performances
SPOTLIGHT: Stormers captain Ruhan Nel addressed a concerning trend his team has been guilty of on several occasions this season.
For a second consecutive United Rugby Championship clash, the Stormers conceded a yellow card within the opening five minutes of the game.
In Round 14 against Edinburgh, Ntuthuko Mchunu was given his marching orders for a deliberate knock-on in the fourth minute.
This past weekend, in their shock Round 15 defeat to Connacht, veteran flanker Deon Fourie was sent to the sinbin for a head-on-head clash two minutes into the game, after which Connacht loose forward Shamus Hurley scored moments later.
It’s also worth noting that in their rescheduled Round Eight clash against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld back in March, the Stormers lost Adre Smith and Ben-Jason Dixon in quick succession, leaving the Capetonians operating with 13 players for five minutes.
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The Stormers, according to the URC statistics, are ranked in seventh position for discipline, having conceded 12 yellow cards, 138 penalties, 34 scrum offences and nine line-out offences.
Nel was asked in the post-match press conference whether the emerging trend is being addressed.
The captain said it’s not something the team extensively talk about, but that they would ideally like to rectify the issue heading into the business end of the tournament.
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“I don’t think it’s a point of discussion in the team,” Nel said.
“Coach Norms [Norman Laker] has done well, where multiple times during training sessions we would be 13 v 15, defending with two guys less.
“We actually put ourselves in a position to cope with a yellow card, or should we leak more [players] than that.
“The first try [Connacht] scored was probably due to the fact that we were short in numbers, where they opted for the corner…it was also touch and go there for us.
“Ideally, we don’t want to leak yellow cards. It puts us under pressure and probably makes us a bit softer defensively as well by not over-committing at the breakdowns or enforcing ourselves on the front line, especially against a side like Connacht with their sophisticated attack.
“We can’t fault Brannas [Deon Fourie] on that. He was very passive in that tackle and probably could’ve bent a bit more, but I don’t think there was anything malicious there.
“When it happened, we knew it would just be a yellow card purely because of the laws of the game, but no, we didn’t feel under pressure or had panic stages for the 10 minutes he was off the field.
