Lions v Stormers: Winners and losers as omitted duo provide ‘perfect’ response to Rassie Erasmus as ‘big-name’ stars struggle
Lions centre Henco van Wyk and Springboks star Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu in action for the Stormers.
Following a 24-10 victory for the Lions over the Stormers at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday, here are our winners and losers from the United Rugby Championship clash.
Winners
Morne van den Berg
The scrum-half has been in outstanding form this season and has certainly been the best South African nine in the United Rugby Championship. With the exception of one overcooked box-kick, Van den Berg was once again superb as he masterminded this derby success.
He dictated proceedings from the base, was generally accurate with his kicking and was a threat around the fringes. Van den Berg also did some excellent work in defence in what was a fine all-round display.
Ntuthuko Mchunu
It has been a mixed season for the loosehead but this hinted at a return to form as he utterly dominated in the scrum during his time on the field. Mchunu is a hugely gifted prop who will be in Springboks 23s if he can get back to his best and this was a step in the right direction despite the Stormers’ disappointing defeat.
Henco van Wyk
Another to struggle to find his form this season and, as a result, he has found himself out of the Springboks reckoning. Van Wyk was not named in Rassie Erasmus’ alignment squad last week, but this was the perfect response as the centre produced a superb display.
The 24-year-old Lions star was a threat in attack, making several impressive incursions, while he also marshalled his channel well in defence, preventing the visitors from creating too many opportunities out wide.
Francke Horn
Like Van Wyk, Horn was not called up by Erasmus and like his team-mate, he produced a statement performance in response to that omission. In fairness, the back-rower is Mr. Consistent for the Lions and rarely drops below a certain standard, and he was magnificent in this encounter.
Siba Mahashe
Making just his second start, the 21-year-old looks a real talent and followed up his try-scoring URC debut last weekend by crossing the whitewash once again. A lot of the talk has been about his flank partner Bathobele Hlekani, who starred for the Junior Springboks last year and has been involved in the senior set-up, Mahashe outplayed him on Saturday.
As well as Mahashe’s involvement with the ball, the back-rower was a beast without it and comfortably ended as the game’s top tackler. He made 18 hits, which was five better than the next best.
Jonathan Roche
Ended in credit even though the Stormers as a whole were poor. Roche constantly provided front-foot ball and was one of the top metre makers, even though his work was mostly done in traffic. The centre is very physical, does the hard yards and keeps mistakes to a minimum. Without him, it may have been an even worse afternoon for the Cape Town-based outfit.
Losers
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Has not had a good few weeks in the Stormers jersey and this was his latest subpar display for the franchise. Feinberg-Mngomezulu had a shocking first half in particular as the Lions completely dominated the opening 40 minutes.
The Springboks star was slightly better after the interval, picking his options out and playing more simply, but his pass into touch which ended the game rather summed up his, and the Stormers’, performance in Johannesburg.
Evan Roos
Another big-name Stormers player who just isn’t producing at the moment, perhaps showing why he has always been on the periphery of the Springboks set-up under Erasmus. Roos is a huge man with a tremendous work ethic, but there are too many errors, and he sometimes falls down on the technical details.
That was shown when he accidentally got in front of the ball-carrier during a maul in the second period. The Stormers thought they had scored but Roos’ illegality meant that a try was wiped off in a key moment in the contest. The back-rower needs to improve those little things if he is to be a Test regular.
Paul de Villiers
After an excellent first half of the season, which earned him a place in the Boks’ alignment camp, the talented flanker has just dropped off slightly over recent matches and that has told in the Stormers’ performances and results.
De Villiers wasn’t poor by any means but the visiting back-row was outplayed by the Lions and it said a lot that he was replaced midway through the second period after struggling to make an impact in Johannesburg.
Lions front-row
Without Asenathi Ntlabakanye, they were put under significant pressure in the scrum and conceded a number of penalties. The Lions will be thankful that it did not cost them but, if they had laid a better platform, it would have been even more convincing, and they could have ended with a bonus-point success.
John Dobson
There were doubts over the future of the Stormers head coach at the end of last season after they finished the season in fifth and were ousted by Glasgow Warriors in the quarter-finals. A superb start to the campaign, where they won their first eight matches, saw Dobson back in credit with the supporters, but three defeats in succession has increased the pressure slightly.
It is not just the results but the manner of them with the Cape Town outfit not getting within seven points of their opponents. They went down twice to the Sharks, 30-19 and 36-24, in their double-header before following that up with another disappointing loss on Saturday. It doesn’t get any easier as they head to Pretoria to face the Bulls in mid-March.
Lions bench
After the brilliant work of the starters, the replacements did their best to waste their fine position, putting them under needless pressure late on. Siba Qoma and Conraad van Vuuren were both yellow carded – the latter then being upgraded to red – before Erich Cronje had a bit of a brain fade late on.
Cronje did go over early in the second period which effectively took the game out of the opponents’ reach, but he wasted the bonus-point opportunity. In a desperate attempt to make an impact, the back saw Francke Horn lose possession of the ball and duly dived in to help out. However, the number eight managed to recollect and was about to score, only for Cronje to knock it out of his hands.