The Stormers thread

[TRF_Ezequiel]

If I have to choose between a Six Nations match and a pre-season friendly of the Sharks, I will go for the Six Nations match.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

If I have to choose between a Six Nations match and a pre-season friendly of the Sharks, I will go for the Six Nations match.

Fair enough but if you live and CT and can't catch the 6N on TV. Read that the Scots didn't play all that badly and the French scored mostly from turn-over ball. If the Scots manage to keep posession better they look like a decent team. It would be great to have another NH team be able to challenge opposition. Other than that it looks like the competition is allready just between France and England. Apart from that head-to-head encounter I am only concerned about the S15 until the WC. Also, the 3N and even CC can go whichever way I wouldn't care.
Ai, tog, the CC won't ever be the same with the new format S15 and we won't see any Bokke in it in a RWC year.

 

[Sker]

Been reading through this thread.

About the Boland, not only do we produce excellent players, we are one of the beautiful parts of the Cape too. Climbed Paarl mountain the other day

I think the Stormers have a good chance to do well this year, just hope Grant is in form, haven't seen him play in quite a while. Van Aswegen doesn't look too bad though, but this is the first time he's going to be playing Super Rugby right? I'm still wondering what they're going to do with the JdV/JdJ story.

Oh, one more reason we have a bigger chance of winning this year... No Naqlu-kak

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Been reading through this thread.

About the Boland, not only do we produce excellent players, we are one of the beautiful parts of the Cape too. Climbed Paarl mountain the other day

I think the Stormers have a good chance to do well this year, just hope Grant is in form, haven't seen him play in quite a while. Van Aswegen doesn't look too bad though, but this is the first time he's going to be playing Super Rugby right? I'm still wondering what they're going to do with the JdV/JdJ story.

Oh, one more reason we have a bigger chance of winning this year... No Naqlu-kak

No Naqelevuki or JD Moller (at least if we don't get seriously hit with injury). Both those guys are walking yellow cards and have cost us big games.

It will be interesting to see if Grant can hit the ground running. Especially after marathon back-to-back-to-back seasons of rugby. Van Aswegen has plenty of potential but makes silly errors still; like kicking the ball dead when we had a penalty and needed an offensive line-out. His first season of Super rugby and I have confidence that he wil do just fine. His general play is good and goal kicking seems to be improving. If he can get his kicking from hand consistant he should be a great asset for WP rugby.

I love the Boland and would kill to be able to afford a place in Stellenbosch. Boland has great potential in SA rugby. If only they could play from Paarl or Stellenbosch they would draw massive crowds (compared to now). It will be interesting to see the "improvement" the Matfield-PdV-Kurt Darren axis make to the franchise. Their first move; changing the colors from black and gold to black and pink... well, it probably won't do any damage. I heard a rumor that they are looking to play from Cape Town stadium. Not too sure if that would work out but it would certainly be a leg up for them and the stadium definately could do with another tennant.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Stormers team to face Boland Saturday 12th Feb at 18h00 (Local time)

http://www.superxv.com/news/super15_rugby_news.asp?id=28763

15. Conrad Jantjes,14. Danie Poolman,13. Tim Whitehead,12. Jean De Villiers,11. JJ Engelbrecht,10. Elgar Watts,9. Ricky Januarie,8. Nick Koster,7. Pieter Louw,6. Schalk Burger (C),5. De Kock Steenkamp,4. Ryhnardt Elstadt,3. CJ Van Der Linde,2. Tiaan Liebenberg,1. Wicus Blaauw

Reserves:16. Siyabonga Ntubeni,17. Steven Kitshoff,18. Frans Malherbe,19. Adriaan Fondse,20. Quinn Roux,21. Francois Louw,22. Ruan Kitshoff,23. Siya Kolisi,24. Nic Groom,25. Lionel Cronje,26. Paul Bosch,27. Johann Sadie


LOL, we play against the boland with arguably their best player in our squad. They should have had him play in one of the games against either Maties or Ikeys and had him play this game for Boland and fielded Lionel Cronje or van Aswegen for us and had a look at both. Also, it would have given the Boland a little extra in competitiveness and Morale.

That said I hope Watts has a great game as we will be playing a few games withour Grant, I'll wager and depth has never been a bad thing (I think).

Other than that the squad has a good mix of experience and youth with our two main leaders back in Burger and JdV. Apart from the starting XV I'd be really interested to see Steven Kitshoff and Siya Kolisi get a decent amount of exposure.

All in all I think our preseason hit-outs should probably be seen as a success; Coetzee blooded plenty of the fringe players 95% of whom are young which is a new trend for the Stormers, they showed that yes, there is a lot to work on but a lot of promise as well. We won and winning is important (even if the games themselves count for nothing) as it becomes a habbit. I feel the pecking order has been set and if we don't suffer massive injury blows and keep the rotation minimal and clever we should be able to push for a finals berth.

 

[Amobokoboko]

Which players would you recommend to follow this season, please not Habana ( not a big fan of him).
Wil keep an eye on the SA teams.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Which players would you recommend to follow this season, please not Habana ( not a big fan of him).
Wil keep an eye on the SA teams.

Yeah, Habana needs to get his act right. As for players form the Stormers there aren't that many players that haven't been around a while or at least didn't play last year. The only new player likely to start in the first XV is Gary van Aswegen at 10 who played for the successful WP U21's last year. He is a good prospect and ticks all the boxes except experience and is still a little inconsistant but worth a watch. At least until Peter Grant is back in the fold.

The other SA teams have lots of new faces who are likely to feature heavily. The Sharks have been done t death in the 'The Sharks Thread' so I'll name a few new faces I am keeping an eye on myself;

Bulls
Bjorn Basson; gifted winger moved from the Griquas where he now holds the record for most tries in a CC season. That while playing for the Griquas where he didn't have the luxury of playing the finals to score more tries where the previous record holders did. Played for the Bokke in the AI's last year but was suspended due to doping charges later dropped. Immense pace and safe as houses under the high ball and chasing kicks; will do well at the Bulls then LOL!
Stefan Watermeyer might start at 13 but Basson is the one to watch.

Cheetahs
Coenie Oosthuizen and WP Nel as a prop combonation; both young and improving every game being coached by the legend, Os du Randt. Big and strong in the scrum and surprisingly mobile. Prone to scoring tries and I haven't seen either going backwards.
Heinrich Brussow is back in the backrow after long injury lay-off; it was thrown around last year that he might not be suited to the new law interpretations but the little time he did had last year said otherwise. Will be interesting to see if he's still got it.
Sarel Pretorius; scrumhalf from Griquas that only erally got a chance for the Cheetahs towards the end of last years S14 (incidentally that was when the Cheetahs started winning games) and he will be first choice this year IMO. Exciting player but at times excitable and likely to through crazy passes that take his teammates by surprise.

Lions; a team transformed by Mitchell and helped by huge new financial support. They have been improving at light speed and the improvements have been consistent. It remains to be seen if they can keep it up in the Super Rugby series but definately a team to watch.
Elton Jantjes; young flyhalf sensation and the Lions' gameplan uner Mitchell suits him; running and everything at pace. Was moer influential in the CC than Lambie (except for the final) IMO and it will be interesting to see him hopefully take the step up.
Franco van der Merwe; Lions captain and lock/flank. has been around but has really had a break though year in CC 2010 under Mitchell. Quick and industrious for a lock.
The entire Lions outback unit (Mapoe/Taute/Killian/Boshoff); look for lots of tries from these guys as the Lions like to play the ball wide and do so with the most pace of the SA teams. Deadly from turn-over ball or in loose play. With the Lions' defense a lot tighter as well (or at lest existent if that is a word) I expect a fair few NZ/Aus teams to be taken by surprise by the lions this year

 

[Amobokoboko]

Cheers mate, thanks for the heads up.
Sharks have been overhyped ( sorry for the choice of words) lately.
Bulls will play the same team as last year.
Cheetahs are the fav team of one of my best friends ( and they had a very good pre-season up to now)
Stormers ( once a year I try to watch a SA clash, stormers are always doing fine) but didn't know that many players.
Lions, could be the surprize together with the Highlanders.

 

[Sker]

They playing at Boland Stadium or at Newlands? I live in Wellington so if they play at Boland Stadium I might go watch it.

Agreed, I think the Lions might surprise a few teams.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

They playing at Boland Stadium or at Newlands? I live in Wellington so if they play at Boland Stadium I might go watch it.

Agreed, I think the Lions might surprise a few teams.

They're playing in Newlands. Sorry, I should have mentioned it.

Bit of a wait on our hands still with having a bye before the season even starts. The coming two weeks are going to be looooooooooong.

And we can't even discuss the likely starting XV because it is pretty much settled LOL. The only question is whether it will be JdV or JdJ on the bench and erm.. that's it. It also looks like the hierarchy of back-up is also settled even though we are missing class depth in some areas particularly the tight five.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Stormers shut out neighbors Boland in the second half but lose 1st choice hooker Tiaan Liebenberg to injury. Expected time layed off still to be announced but it looks like a serious injury.

http://www.sarugby.com/2011/02/12/stormers-finish-strong-against-boland/

Liebenberg is a huge loss and I hope he recovers well. It will be interesting to see who starts in his place. Deon Fourie has the inside track but I have always seen him as an impact player off the bench and with Siyabonga Ntubeni having a great game against the Boland I wouldn't be surprised to see each play a half with Ntubeni starting. Does anyone know if Hanyani Shimange is still around?

So we have gone through the pre-season undefeated and gave the back-up players opportunities. All in all it was good but I still have to see the Stormers click from the first whistle. I have a feeling that we are going to win a couple early on but win them ugly. I hope the addition of Jacque Fourie and Peter grant will give us hwat we need as the kicking has been a little inconsistent from the Stormers up to now. We now have a bye in week 1 and that should give AC the opportunity to iron out the kinks. Hopefully. I'm just glad we face the Lions at home in our first game. Still, it's going to be a case of easier said than done even though we should win it on paper.

 

[Gena_ZA]

Ruan Kitshoff (19 year old) was the most effective player of the bench.
Blistering pace and aggresive defence reminds of the young Pitbull Heinrich Brussow
JJ Engelbrecht looks like a star in the years to come
The young 18 year old red headed Steven Kitchoff (1,83 & 114Kg) stood well in the scrums in his first taste of senior rugby

Elgar Watts is hopefully number 4 in the flyhalf pecking order with Lional Cronje showing more vision.
Wikus Blaaw keeps on underperforming.
Big Mac January is still in December...

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Ruan Kitshoff (19 year old) was the most effective player of the bench.
Blistering pace and aggresive defence reminds of the young Pitbull Heinrich Brussow
JJ Engelbrecht looks like a star in the years to come
The young 18 year old red headed Steven Kitchoff (1,83 & 114Kg) stood well in the scrums in his first taste of senior rugby

Elgar Watts is hopefully number 4 in the flyhalf pecking order with Lional Cronje showing more vision.
Wikus Blaaw keeps on underperforming.
Big Mac January is still in December...

Yeah, Watts def 4rth choice and its good we signed van der Linde to bolster the front row. Our 1st choice is a good combination though with vander Linde at loose and Harris at tight head. Losing Liebenberg will hurt though.

And isn't it great to finally see the Stormers/WP show faith in their youngsters (Kitshoff, Cronje, van Aswegen, Engelbrecht etc)!?! It still remains to be seen how these guys will be used during the actual season but the signs are positive. Very glad to see the newcomers are keeping the tight defense in tact as well. Lots of room for improvement and we aren't really losing anyone after the RWC (except possibly Alliester Coetzee should he get the top Bok jobbie) so the next few years are going to be exciting at WP!

 

[Seaton]

Agree that Liebenberg is a big miss for the Stormers, glad to hear it wasn't the ACL injury they initially feared

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/super14/news/2694742.htm

Looks like Grant won't be back for our first game. So with Liebenberg out for 2/3 of the tournament and Aplon healing we are missing a key player in each dept. I am glad on the one hand that our first game is against the Lions but then again if they beat us at Newlands that would be the one game we probably could have banked on gone. The season hasn't stared and we are looking at player management already as a big factor for the Stormers LOL. Just when I was starting to warm up to the new format.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Stormers vs Lions at Newlands. What do you guys think?


On paper the Stormers should walk it especially with home advantage but the Lions have had the benefit of a real game under the belt and it was a game that they would take a lot of confidence from even if they didn't get the result. The Stormers on the other hand have had a decent unbeaten preseason BUT have yet to impress in 2011 and show they are ***le contenders. That said their defense did look spot on and that should see them through; the defense putting pressure on the Lions. We have good wide defense as well which is crucial for this game as the Lions look to give the ball air and play a very Australasian game with John Mitchell at the helm and some dangerous runners at his command.

25-18 to the Stormers; Stormers letting in a last minute try after dominating the game through gutsy defense and tries from counter-attacks and a driving maul.

 

[Seaton]

Oooof, is a toughy

Lions will be rightly bouyed by the Bulls result, and I think they could be more up for this than the Stormers

That said, whilst heart can be a substitute for quality, the quality difference is too much in this case

Stormers to win, no try bonus point for either side, and a kicking orientated display if Aswegan starts and the Lions seek to put pressure on him

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Oooof, is a toughy

Lions will be rightly bouyed by the Bulls result, and I think they could be more up for this than the Stormers

That said, whilst heart can be a substitute for quality, the quality difference is too much in this case

Stormers to win, no try bonus point for either side, and a kicking orientated display if Aswegan starts and the Lions seek to put pressure on him

Yes, I feel the same; we should win but I won't relax until the result is in.

I doubt Van Aswegen will start. Cronje had a the better games toward the end and Grant is back at training (thanks to Suntory Sungoliath for knocking the steelers out!!)and Coetzee has indicated that he is likely to through Grant in as he is match fit and knows the Stormers game inside out. Aplon is going to be given more time so we will likely see Danie Poolman on the other wing. the centre combonation is up in the air as Fourie is available so i would expect JdV on the Bench or maybe De Jongh might be more effective as a replacement. The only worry for me is with Liebenberg out we lose a lot of grunt and its in the forwards that I felt we had one over on the Lions.

Still, Stormers should win it. Good luck with the Blues by the way. What is the likely weather conditions for Durban?

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I hope the Stormers and Sharks can at leasr get as many points possible within the conference. I'd love to see both in the play offs.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I hope the Stormers and Sharks can at leasr get as many points possible within the conference. I'd love to see both in the play offs.

That would be awesome. With the way the Cheetahs' season is panning out, we need only worry about the Lions and winning our home games against each other and the Bulls. That and seeing off our international vistors and taking 2 or 3 games on tour should do the trick.