Cheetahs down Stormers in Cape Town
Specman dishes up a hat-trick of tries
It was a penalty from Frans Steyn 10 minutes from time that put the Toyota Cheetahs into the 34-33 lead they held until the end of the game but it was really their counter-attacking magic and X-factor of Rosko Specman that earned them their Preparation Series win at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
Specman has been a big thorn in the side of the Stormers over the past two seasons and he was again in this game as he completed a hat-trick of tries to deny the Stormers a winning start to what you could call the Cape Town Stadium era after their switch of home venue from Newlands during the off-season.
The Stormers were playing with a second-string pack but you wouldn’t have thought so given the dominance they enjoyed in the scrums, with tighthead prop Neethling Fouche excelling in his attempt to underline just what a valuable understudy he will be for Springbok Frans Malherbe going forward.
The Stormers also mauled well in the opening half, and it was only later in the game, once both teams had made their substitutions and the two packs were completely different, that the Cheetahs maul took charge and they won the game.
It was the Cheetahs counter-attack that kept them in the game in the first half though, and the two tries that Specman scored in the last move of the first half and the first move of the second half respectively that got the Cheetahs into a game they looked destined to lose due to their indiscipline in the face of the home team’s first half forward onslaught.
Wilmar Arnoldi had scored a good try from a blindside move off an attacking lineout early in the game but after that it was three tries in a row from Specman, the first two both the product of counter-attack.
The first saw fullback Clayton Blommetjies playing a prominent role as instigator, no surprise there, while the second, and arguably the most important score of the match when it came to determining the winner, was more individualistic, with Specman striking from broken play and darting this way and that between ineffectual Stormers tackle attempts.
It was an important score because it was came on the stroke of the break, and the Cheetahs were trailing 26-14 at the time.
Had the score remained the same at the break, the Stormers would almost certainly have won, but going in with a 26-21 advantage put a different complexion on the game for both the less experienced hosts and the more experienced visitors.
The Stormers’ first try saw the pace and power of wing Edwill van der Merwe come to the fore as he brushed off Specman at the start of a run that set up the score for fullback Tristan Leyds.
The second try saw Zas, who looked much more like his old pre-injury self in this game than he has before in a Stormers or WP jersey, kick through a ball that had gone loose when a Cheetahs attempted counter broke down and use his pace to win the race.
The third Stormers try, which came in the second half, was a penalty try that came from another impressive scrum, while the rest of the points were contributed by flyhalf Kade Wolhuter’s boot as the Stormers fed on the Cheetahs’ first-half indiscipline and their own advantage at forward. Scorers Stormers (26) 33 Tries: Tristan Leyds. Leolin Zas, a penalty try. Coversions: Kade Wolhuter (2). Penalties: Wolhuter (4) Cheetahs (21) 34 Tries: Rosko Specman (3), Wilmar Arnoldi. Conversions: Frans Steyn (4). Penalties: Steyn (2).