THE Stormers played some entertaining rugby – like they are known for – and scored some beautiful tries from all over the park in their friendly clash with Northampton Saints yesterday at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Garden.
But they paid a heavy price for the excitement they brought as dynamic eighth man Keke Morabe suffered an injury late in the first half and he looks set to spend more time on the sidelines.
The inaugural United Rugby Championship (URC) winners beat the current Premiership log leaders 45-29, but the knock to Morabe could be a big one.
Before the injury, he was one of the Cape side’s best players with the ball in hand, and by disrupting Saints’ possession when they were on the attack.
He had a hand in a couple of the four tries in the first forty, and scored one of them when he pounced on a ball at a ruck, got up and burst through several tackles to race away from just over the halfway line to score.
But him hobbling and being helped off from the field by the Stormers’ personnel spells bad news for the side. He recently recovered from an injury that kept him out.
Another standout was the Stormers’ scrum although they didn’t get the reward for it at times with some questionable calls from the referee.
They had a few decent scrums in the first half, and won some penalties off these, but other times they had to play the ball from it even if they moved forward. In the second half the tables turned in the scrums and the visitors conceded penalties in the scrum that let the home side get out of trouble at times.
Their age old ailment of not converting opportunities when in their opponents’ 22 metre area was evident. They had chances to score more tries in the first and second half but squandered them.
Still, the seven tries they scored and the overall experience in the English conditions can only be good for their road ahead in the URC, and Champions Cup.
Apart from Morabe, scrumhalves Stefan Ungerer and his replacement Godlen Masimla provided quick possession to their backline. Flyhalf Jurie Matthee again performed against a Premiership side, and showed he can be the backup to Springbok pivot Manie Libbok.
Loose forward Junior Pokomela also had a good performance after returning from injury, while outside centre Wandisile Simelane also showed good touches . He was amongst the try scorers as regular loosie Hacjivah Dayimani had a ball on the wing, scoring two of the Stormers’ five-pointers.
This was a good outing to get over the loss against the Bulls, and coach John Dobson saw some players put in a shift that could make selection over the next few games very interesting.