Last year the Stormers’ Super Rugby campaign started on a very different note.
Firstly, they were completely dismantled by the Bulls in their opener at Loftus, suffering a 40-3 thrashing at the hands of their foes.
The Stormers’ performance in that demolition job wasn’t much easier to look at than the score itself. It was just a bad, bad way to kick off the year.
This time, though, they’ll go into their home meeting with the Bulls fresh off a morale-boosting 27-0 victory over the Hurricanes, while the Bulls come off their first defeat to the Sharks in nine matches.
At the weekend, there were brilliant performances all round from the Capetonians, and while centre Ruhan Nel - who partnered new recruit and Welsh international Jamie Roberts in midfield - won’t allow overconfidence to be his downfall, he was obviously very happy with the way they got the ball rolling against the Canes.
“Last year when we played the Bulls in that first game we were on the receiving end of taking points, so to get a start like that, especially against the Hurricanes we’ll take that any day of the week,” Nel said.
On his centre pairing with Roberts, Nel said: “I believe it went quite well and that it can go a lot better, we’ve only been training together for one week, so it’s going to take time before we can properly gel together.
“But as a start I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Roberts’ Super Rugby debut was a solid one, with a number of good touches, while he was also outstanding on defence.
“He’s a guy with a lot of experience, he’s been around playing rugby, so if you don’t ask questions to benefit from his experiences, it’d actually be a waste,” Nel said about the Welsh veteran and British & Irish Lion.
The Stormers’ performance against the Hurricanes saw them tick a number of boxes, a lot, actually, and for the experienced Blitzbok, one takeaway from the game that is especially pleasing is knowing that there is still so much room for growth.
“There were a few opportunities where we felt we could have got more points but we just lost the ball in contact and made silly errors.
“But it’s something we’re excited about, knowing that there are opportunities out there, so it’s something that we addressed and we’ll work on.”
Meanwhile, Stormers defence coach Norman Laker confirmed that Siya Kolisi’s scans revealed damage to his medial collateral ligament, which should keep him out for a number of weeks, but couldn’t confirm how long he’d be out for, while Jaco Coetzee could be available for the weekend.
The prognosis for Bongi Mbonambi hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The Stormers will face the Bulls at 5.15pm on Saturday.
@WynonaLouw
Cape Times
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