Super 14 highlights 2010 – Round 2: Stormers VS Waratahs

23 February 2010 in Super 14 by Dooley

Stormers VS Waratahs: The Stormers hosted the Waratahs at Newlands, on a sweltering Cape Town Saturday evening, for their first home game of the 2010 Super 14 season.

The Waratahs opened the scoring with a penalty shot at goal, but it was the Stormers who drew first blood in the try scoring department,when Francois Louw crossed the chalk in the 30th minute. Referee Keith Brown referred the try to TMO, Sean Veldsman, who couldn’t see any reason not to award the try.

A few more penalties were exchanged, and shots at goal taken before the Stormers again scored through a charge down by new Stormers recruit, and Springbok superstar, Brian Habana, in the 43rd minute of the game.

Habana made it a double in the 55th minute after Vermuelen picked up at the back of a scrum, passed to January, who drew the defence perfectly, before offloading to Habana, who had too much pace for the Waratahs defense and crossed the line again.

My two cents worth:

The Stormers need to break their bad habit of going to sleep in the last 20 minutes of the match and start looking to score some bonus points if they want a spot in the playoffs.
Bryan Habana showed the Newlands faithfull what a great buy he was with a good performance on the wing.
Francois Louw was strong as always. He will be looking to continue making a strong statement to the Springbok selectors.
The Waratahs just didn’t seem to have any real bite.
Rickie January missed 7 tackles, with another 2 being ineffective, with only a 34% success rate. Whilst Peter Grant missed 5, for a 50% success rate. That is shocking at this level.