“The Stormers had one chance with that maul and they scored, that was the difference between winning and losing.”
After the Stormers’ win against the Bulls in their Super Rugby derby at Newlands on Saturday, there’s one thing that both these teams want to improve on – their attack.
To be fair, it’s the Bulls who need to address that issue more desperately.
Pote Human’s team failed to score a single point at Newlands, going down 13-0, and the more concerning part is that the north-south fixture marked the second match in as many weeks that the Bulls have blanked in the try-scoring department. And it’s not like they didn’t have their chances
The Bulls wasted several try-scoring opportunities against the Stormers, something that should be right at the top of their list of work-ons going into their bye week.
“To not score tries off the ball that we had and giving away too many silly penalties cost us in the end,” Human (pictured) said.
“We need to score tries. With all the ball we had, we must finish and put teams under pressure.
“The Stormers had one chance with that maul and they scored, that was the difference between winning and losing.”
The scrummaging contest was a much-anticipated one, and the Bulls certainly presented much more competition in this area than the Hurricanes did when they faced the Stormers last week.
Human added that he was pleased with how his pack went. “I really thought our pack was a bit dominant, especially when Trevor (Nyakane) and Lizo (Gqoboka) were still on the field, so there is a lot to look forward to,” he said.
“There are three home games waiting for us now and it’s not going to (be) easy, but it will be nice to be back at Loftus.”
Stormers coach John Dobson also wants to see more on attack. Specifically, he wants to give his potent back three of Sergeal Petersen, Seabelo Senatla and Dillyn Leyds more opportunities to strike.
Senatla did add his name to the point-scorers’ list with his try but, overall, this Stormers team is capable of much more on attack, and they gave a glimpse of that in their 27-0, four-try demolition of the Hurricanes.
“We’re probably operating at about 30 or 40 percent on attack, but I’m sure we’ll get better,” Dobson said.
“I think this team has a lot of potential on attack. We certainly were poorer on attack, but we can get better.
“We’ve got this electric back three, so we just need to work on getting the ball through more phases to involve them.”
In many ways it was a typical north-south derby, and the Stormers coach added that he would have liked to treat the Newlands Faithful to a less-dull showpiece, especially seeing as there was such a good turnout.
