The Stormers have been slammed on social media for their tactics in the 24-14 Investec Champions Cup defeat to Toulon in Gqeberha on Saturday.
John Dobson’s team was outmuscled by the French giants at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in their opening game of the competition.
Les Bleus scrum-half Baptiste Serin starred for Toulon scoring 14 points, including a try, with Gabin Villiere and Facundo Isa also crossing for tries.
Springboks Warrick Gelant and Joseph Dweba grabbed five-pointers for the hosts in what was a rather blunt and ineffective performance, particularly in attack during the Champions Cup clash.
Stormers’ attacking woes
The Stormers kicked 30 times during their game against Toulon, a modest total, with the French side actually kicking on more occasions (38) during the match.
However, it was the manner in which the Capetonians kicked that has drawn criticism from the fans with Dobson’s team making regular use of low kicks and grubbers with minimal success. In fact, they retained possession with just eight of their 30 kicks, five of which were collected by a Stormers player – the others forcing errors from Toulon.
This meant that they wasted several attacking opportunities inside the French team’s half. It was not only the kicking that has sparked the criticism but the side’s willingness to attack from all corners of the pitch – often forcing the issue – when it was not on or they were under pressure.
Overall, the Stormers conceded 19 turnovers in the 80 minutes and were not able to capitalise on the ill-discipline of Toulon who leaked 14 penalties.
The likes of Gelant and Manie Libbok drew the most criticism from the performance with the full-back surprisingly leading the kicking stats for the Stormers with 10 followed by Libbok (7). The latter also copped some heat for his offload in contact behind his own try-line that could have very easily led to a try.
YouTuber Rian Louw posted a compilation of the Stormers’ errors and wastefulness which he posted to social media platform X, with the video accompanied by the soundtrack of the Goofy Movie and captioned ‘Goof Troop.’
Goof Troop pic.twitter.com/7P1GLgzQMb
— Riaan Louw (@Ringo26) December 8, 2024
Fans were quick to react to the video and weigh in with their views of the side that has just won just two of their seven matches this season.
“These lads brainless or just forgotten how to play sensible rugby??” one fan questioned.
AP Cronje, added: “Stormers have been unbelievably unlucky with injuries. But if you’re playing without some of your key individuals and you make a conscious decision to play deeply unserious rugby – then you are also not helping yourself.”
A Leinster fan simply wrote ‘URC Champions 2022’ while another sarcastically asked ‘Is this a pro rugby team?’ and there were a few who stated that ‘this is not a serious rugby team anymore’.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/stormers-playing-deeply-unserious-rugby-as-footage-shows-just-how-ridiculously-wasteful-they-are
