The Stormers slumped to a humiliating 22-3 defeat to the Western Force in their Super 14 match at Newlands on Saturday night.
Kobus van der Merwe and his side had spoken all week about improving on last week’s crushing loss to the Cheetahs, but this was an even worse setback on their home field.
The Force made all the play in the first half and could have been up more than 13-0, had it not been for errors on the attack.
They were 6-0 up after 20 minutes courtesy of two penalties by left wing Cameron Shepherd. Stormers flyhalf Naas Olivier had earlier missed a penalty, but other than that, the Stormers never even went close to scoring in the first half.
The Force continued to dominate the half and created almost all the play. However, it was from a Stormers mistake that they pounced for their first try, with centre Ryan Cross running in after storming down fullback Gio Aplon.
Shepherd made no mistake with the conversion to make it 13-0, and when the rain started pouring down, it was obvious that the Stormers had a huge mountain to climb to get back into the game.
They were never going to manage that with their combination of ill discipline and unforced errors. The Stormers pulled three points back early in the first half, but were always chasing the game after that and the few meaningful incursions that were made just ended up with the ball lost in contact.
Shepherd continued to keep the scoreboard ticking for the Force with three more penalties. The amount of penalties conceded will be a huge concern to Van der Merwe. So too the scrums, where the front row struggled to come to terms with moderate opposition.
The only area in which the Stormers enjoyed supremacy was the line-outs, winning six of the Force balls. However, they failed to put meaningful passages of play together and things were looking bleak after just two games in their campaign. — Sapa