Stormers v All Blacks: Five takeaways as host ‘expose’ clear flaws in Dave Rennie’s team’s game with Beauden Barrett failing to live up to his pedigree
All Blacks Beauden Barrett and Rieko Ioane in action against the Stormers.
Following the All Blacks’ 38-21 victory over the Stormers in the opening Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour match in Cape Town, here are our five takeaways.
Top Line
History was made at the DHL Stadium as the Stormers hosted the All Blacks for the very first time in their history. Dave Rennie’s charges were heavy favourites heading into the encounter, but it was only in the final quarter when the men from Aotearoa really pulled away on the scoreboard.
The men from Aotearoa scored six tries past John Dobson’s charges, converting four, but produced an ill-disciplined and inaccurate performance against a brave Stormers outfit that scored three five-pointers and added the extras on two occasions.
Samisoni Taukei’aho etched his name into the history books as he scored the first try of the inaugural Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour at the back of a strong rolling maul. It was a bright start from the men in black, but they were soon on the back foot through their own ill-discipline, with Anton Lienert-Brown receiving a yellow card for a dangerous tackle and Simon Parker joining him soon after following multiple lineout infringements.
The latter sin-binning came after Andre-Hugo Venter had a try chalked off by the TMO, but Deon Fourie would not be denied as the soon-to-be 40-year-old sported a broad smile after crashing over – also at the back of a maul.
That levelled the scores at seven points apiece, and it looked as if it would stay that way, but the tourists would have the final say of the opening 40 minutes with Parker finishing off a lovely flowing attack just before the break.
Into the second half and the Stormers levelled the scores once again with Fourie sending former Blitzboks Seabelo Senatla tearing through a gap and the speedster summersalted over the line to score a memorable try in front of 47, 130 spectators.
The All Blacks finally found some rhythm in the final quarter and scored through Rieko Ioane, Leroy Carter and Josh Moorby in the 66th, 71st and 75th minutes, respectively, to open up a 33-14 advantage. Moorby conceded a penalty try in the final three minutes, but again, the All Blacks had the final say as Asafo Aumua made it 21-38.
Proper contest
Stormers boss Dobson threw down the gauntlet in the week, calling on the South African URC teams to make these tour matches difficult for the All Blacks, and boy did his men rise to the occasion.
For 60-odd minutes, the Cape-based outfit traded blow for blow with the New Zealanders, this despite the personnel setbacks that they suffered with Imad Khan, Ruhan Nel and Dewaldt Duvenage all forced off the pitch through injury. With Dobson picking a 6-2 bench, the Stormers had to rely on Hacjivah Dayimani shifting to the wing, and that had its consequences with the buggered forward putting in a tired clearance, and the All Blacks punished him for it.
Still, that should not take the shine off what was a truly brave effort from the Cape Town club, spearheaded by the evergreen Fourie who was truly marvellous once again versus the All Blacks. A hero in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, the 39-year-old was not on the park for as long this time around but his contributions were just as important. Senatla’s try was almost exclusively his doing as he expertly won a breakdown penalty and then sent the winger speeding through with a perfectly timed pass from the set move at the lineout.
Prior to this, the British and Irish Lions were the only true modern-day touring team and far too often when they have faced club teams, it has been one-sided and rather dull affairs. But that was not the case on Friday evening in Cape Town as the Stormers gave as good as they got against a proper Test team.
The All Blacks were made to dig deep, and if the Sharks, Bulls and Lions follow suit, we are in for one hell of a tour that lives up to the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tag.
The master v apprentice
One of the most enticing head-to-heads ahead of this clash was in the number 10 jerseys with Yaqeen Ahmed going toe-to-toe with his childhood hero Beauden Barrett, and what transpired is something that the Junior Bok will never forget.
Ahmed was simply brilliant and produced a performance well-beyond his years. He was tactically excellent, certain in his decision-making and sprinkled in some moments of magic for good measure. Sure, his Stormers debut ended in defeat, but on the balance of things, he was the better fly-half on the day.
Which brings us to the man on the completely opposite end of his career. Barrett had the opportunity to force his way back up the All Blacks’ pecking order, and while Sir Steve Hansen predicted something special from the experienced first-five, we didn’t get it. There were flashes of brilliance from Barrett, particularly in the opening 20 minutes; there were errors in his game that didn’t live up to his pedigree. He was part of a backfield that lost the aerial duel, passes that went to ground and errors that he simply doesn’t make.
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All Blacks’ issues
Considering many players haven’t played a match in a month and the plethora of changes Rennie made from the Nations Championship matches to this one, it was never going to be a coherent, accurate and ruthless All Blacks’ performance.
As mentioned above, the Stormers asked so many questions of the All Blacks and exposed serious issues in their game that they need to iron out before the Test series opener at Ellis Park. Sure, many of the 23 that featured today won’t feature on the Highveld, but some could and will need to fix clear flaws in their games if they hope to crack the nod.
One of the biggest issues for the All Blacks was the scrum. Pasilio Tosi was penalised four times, having routinely folded under the pressure exerted on him by Vernon Matongo, before Rennie finally put him out of his misery and gave Siale Lauaki his All Blacks debut. He immediately conceded a penalty in his first scrum.
Adding insult to injury was Samisoni Taukei’aho’s inability to use the brake foot – a safety measure implemented by World Rugby. Frankly, it is inexcusable that a hooker of Taukei’aho’s pedigree and experience struggled so much with this concept that was introduced two years ago. Referee Karl Dickson regularly reminded him about it too, and he just failed to adhere to the instruction. Jason Ryan will be livid.
While Taukei’aho was strong around the pitch and grabbed a try, he did his hopes of being Codie Taylor’s deputy in the Test matches no good at all with his scrummaging failures. Sure, the deck was slippery, but it was slippery for both sides, and Venter had no issue.
It wasn’t just the scrum though as the All Blacks’ backfield was at sixes and sevens under the high ball, with even experienced campaigners Rieko Ioane and Barrett failing to boss the airwaves, and the Stormers feasted on the scraps. New Zealand struggled to adapt to the removal of the escorts under Scott Robertson but weren’t really tested in that regard during the Nations Championship. However, Dobson’s charges were happy to hang it high and reaped the rewards from doing so.
Then there was the discipline. Parker and Anton Lienert-Brown both visited the sin bin, the former being the last to concede after multiple infringements while the latter failed to tackle Jonathan Roche low. Then Moorby was yellow-carded and conceded a penalty try.
In the opening 20 minutes, the All Blacks conceded seven penalties – a tally they simply cannot afford against Rassie Erasmus’ charges. While that rate slowed thereafter, their final count of 15 was still too high for a match they should be dominating.
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Why Dave Rennie will be pleased
Many Kiwi pundits predict 50+ scorelines and were demanding at least 30 for this fixture to be a success, but one has to feel that Rennie got far more answers from their 17-point win than a far more comprehensive one.
As mentioned above, the Stormers exposed areas of the All Blacks’ game that France, Italy and Ireland simply didn’t. The head coach admitted that he had picked the teams for the opening four matches of the tour before they even touched down in South Africa, including the first Test versus the Springboks, but he may need to rethink those picks.
After his yellow card, Lienert-Brown went about righting his wrong and produced a tidy performance – perhaps not Man of the Match worthy but certainly one to take notice of. Peter Lakai looked powerful and aggressive in contact while Anton Segner didn’t take a step back for second.
Barrett was hit and miss throughout this performance and arguably more of the latter, while Cortez Ratima gave the All Blacks attack some real whip and was nippy around the fringes. Moorby and Carter were effective with ball in hand, as was Ioane, but the trio didn’t cover themselves in glory under the high ball. Tosi was lively around the park but atrocious in the scrums, and the same can be said of Taukei’aho.
Finally, Fabian Holland and Patrick Tuipulotu were strong in the second row. All in all, Rennie will be pleased that the Stormers selected an undercooked team that hadn’t played since the URC semi-finals and not an inexperienced one filled with academy players.
