There was a mixture of frustration and relief in the Stormers camp after they escaped with a last-gasp 38-38 draw against Ulster in Belfast on Friday, coach John Dobson said.
Dominating a lively United Rugby Championship clash for long spells and scoring five tries, the Stormers needed a last-minute penalty try to snatch a share of the spoils.
In a dramatic finale, referee Andrea Piardi ruled that Ulster scrumhalf Nathan Doak had made shoulder-to-head contact with Leolin Zas as the winger attempted to get over in the corner.
The draw allowed Glasgow Warriors to move above the Stormers into top spot following a 40-17 win against Cardiff.
“It’s probably a mixture of frustration that we didn’t get five points, because I thought at times our dominance was pretty imperious,” Dobson said.
The Stormers must neutralise the explosive power of countryman Juarno “Trokkie” Augustus when they face Ulster in a top-of-the-table United Rugby Championship clash in Belfast on Friday, assistant coach Rito Hlungwani says.
After deciding his future lay overseas after an impressive stint at the Stormers, the rampant No 8 shone for Northampton Saints in England before becoming a key member of the Ulster side.
Augustus has hit top form at the business end of the season, and was named player of the match when Ulster advanced into the EPCR Challenge Cup semifinals with a 29-12 win over Exeter Chiefs last week.
“I coached Trokkie a couple of years ago, so he’s a player I know really, really well,” Hlungwani said. “He’s a good person, comes from a great family and I’m really proud of what he’s achieved since he left us.
“Juarno has given Ulster an extra layer to their attack. He did the same thing for Northampton Saints for a couple of years, and he is a good ball carrier. That go-forward ball he provides really helps them a lot.
“For us, it’s about making sure we handle his power. We feel like we’ve got players with good stopping power and good carrying ability who can match that and hopefully neutralise him.
It’s a really fast pitch. The ball bobbles a lot and keeps rolling, so you can’t rely on it going dead. The momentum you get from carries is different, so your body height has to be right. The same applies to tackling and those small details become very important
“The desperation is there from our side. We want to come back still No 1 and give ourselves the best chance to play in the playoffs at home in Cape Town.”
Hlungwani said his team’s growing familiarity with artificial surfaces could be vital in Belfast.
“On our last trip to Belfast we didn’t spend a lot of time training on it — and then when we did, the boys took quite long to recover. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve decided to do most of our preparation at home this time.
“It’s a really fast pitch. The ball bobbles a lot and keeps rolling, so you can’t rely on it going dead. The momentum you get from carries is different, so your body height has to be right. The same applies to tackling and those small details become very important.
“I think the last win we had on 4G was Connacht away. We’ve won in Edinburgh, we’ve come close at Ulster, we’ve come close at Cardiff — but we see those experiences as an opportunity to learn.
“We feel we’ve got a strong understanding of how to prepare and play on that surface. We have had wins, probably the biggest one at Stade Francais.”
Springbok lock Salmaan Moerat is back in training after a serious toe injury, Hlungwani added.
“We had a split session this week, and he was getting stuck in. Salmaan did some scrumming and live mauls, so he’s coming back slowly. We’ll see how he goes for the rest of the week.”
Moerat’s return will be a timely boost, as fellow lock JD Schickerling (knee) is ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
“Schickerling is out for the season, so having someone like Salmaan coming back would obviously help us with depth.”
URC fixtures
Friday:
8.45pm: Ulster vs Stormers.
Saturday:
1.45pm: Bulls vs Zebre;
4pm: Sharks vs Benetton;
6.30pm: Leinster vs Lions.
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“But in the end we’re probably lucky to get the three.
“There were four clear moments.
“The two pick-and-go penalties we conceded — one of which is a 14-point swing — then Evan Roos’s knock-on on the tryline from a pick-and-go, and another knock-on when we were played in.
“Those are four clear tries, and that’s without the general what-ifs.
“So that was frustrating regarding some of our mistakes.
“I thought our fight was good — the scrambling defence — but we fell off at times.
“And very disappointing discipline with offside penalties, soft penalties, which put us under pressure.”
A swirling wind resulted in the Stormers struggling to master the aerial battles.
“I think the most disappointing thing, in very tough conditions with a swirling wind, was the contestable kicking game,” said Dobson.
“We’ve worked so hard to become good at that, and we lost one or two of those contests.
“We were probably slightly behind them in the air, which hasn’t been the case for a while.
“The Stormers are also a team that has relied a lot on scrum and maul penalties to get territory and attack.
Good decision-making coupled with a measured game plan worked wonders for the Stormers when they powered their way to a 48-12 win over Glasgow Warriors, coach John Dobson said.
After crashing to 33-24 to Connacht in their previous United Rugby Championship clash, the Stormers returned to winning ways thanks to a six-try blitz at the Cape Town Stadium.
The mood surrounding the Connacht clash had been sombre after the death of long-serving team manager Chippie Solomon.
“I think we could focus a bit more on the rugby this week,” Dobson said.
“If you’re saying we played conservatively, then yes, probably. It was more like playoff rugby.”
“Last week we were desperate and forced things, shovelling inferior ball.
“This week we applied pressure. We knew we could put some pressure on set-piece wise and that was effective.
“We didn’t need to create the magic against Glasgow, so that helped.
“I thought the decision-making was excellent.”
Dobson said criticism of the Stormers after the Connacht loss had been unjustified.
“We got a lot of criticism for the Connacht performance,” he said.
“But to understand what this team was going through, or what Chippie meant to us and to this organisation, and to expect those guys to perform normally is a lack of humanity in my mind.
“We wanted to put in a proper performance against Glasgow, so to have done it like that and in the manner we did, it’s a really happy change room at this stage, and we can build on this.”
Dobson said the debut of 18-year-old Markus Muller with 14 minutes to go had been special.
“That noise (from the crowd) was so cool,” he said.
“It makes me proud of the crowd because it shows they’re informed and enthusiastic. It was brilliant.
“He’s the happiest kid. I think his hand is sore, but he’s the happiest kid in the world down there at the moment.
“Personally, I would have liked to give him five or 10 minutes more. But we were down to one back at one stage, so we didn’t have the flexibility.”
“He didn’t have much ball in hand, but his defence was really, really good. He stayed alive in the system and handled it well.
“It’s important for us to show there’s a pathway. If you come through the system, you’ll get an opportunity.
“That’s critical for what we’re building.”
The win was marred when Cobus Reinach left the field in the 60th minute with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
“He’s in a brace and hasn’t been scanned yet,” Dobson said.
“But I don’t see that being a quick turnaround.
“It looks like a ligament, possibly medial. Hopefully it’s not an ACL, but it’s serious enough to keep him out for a while.”
Captain Ruhan Nel said the Stormers had been fired up for one of the biggest games of the season against the United Rugby Championship log-leaders.
“You could feel from the start of the week the boys were ready to get back to business and the energy shifted,” he said.
“It was about doing something for ourselves.
“We embrace criticism after the Connacht defeat, but there was a lack of understanding about what we went through.
“I feel like there was a lack of respect, a lack of understanding towards the team and what we went through.
“That also was part of the motivation this week that put a bit of anger in us. That added motivation.”
Other URC scores: Edinburgh 33 Sharks 28, Lions 33 Connacht 21, Scarlets 21 Bulls 23.
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“But we didn’t get that reward. We had one scrum on our ball, which is normally where you get penalties, and they stopped our mauls very effectively.
“So we had to find another way, and I thought that was very pleasing — that we could still score tries and get on top of them without that dominance.
“It’s definitely a game we feel we should have won, without taking anything away from Ulster.
Dobson said loose forward Deon Fourie looks set to be sidelined for a long time after picking up an injury when he was cleaned out at a ruck by Ulster skipper Iain Henderson.
“I feel very sorry for Fourie,” he said.
“That type of action has to be removed from the game. No player can survive that.
“If we don’t take that out, there’s no room for turnovers, and the game becomes like rugby league.”
“But don’t think the player meant to injure him deliberately, but it’s a big blow for us, especially with the form Deon’s been in.”
Ulster 38 Tries: Werner Kok (3), Zac Ward, Mike Lowry, Eric O’Sullivan. Conversions: Nathan Doak (4).
Stormers 38: Tries: Evan Roos, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2), Imad Khan, penalty try. Conversions: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (4). Penalty: Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Other URC scores: Bulls 54 Zebre 19, Sharks 46 Benetton 7, Leinster 31 Lions 7.
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