Stormers win tackle battle in stalemate #FanUp
A nail-biting Vodacom SupeRugby clash between the Emirates Lions and the DHL Stormers may have ended in a 19-19 stalemate but it is the hosts that won the defensive battle in Cape Town on Saturday.
The hosts put on an exhaustive defensive effort to deny the Lions and claim a playoff berth as they were crowned South African Conference winners.
The Stormers executed a whopping 197 tackles compared to the 93 by the Lions in a match that was considered to be a final for conference supremacy.
Coming out on top in the tackles category is no easy feat considering the Lions had two of the leading defenders in captain Warren Whiteley and Warwick Tecklenburg.
Whiteley is the undisputed king of tackling with the 227 he executed this season which is 45 more than his nearest rival Boom Prinsloo of the Cheetahs, while Tecklenburg is third with 179 tackles.
However, the dangerous duo was no match for the Stormers’ Schalk Burger, Bongi Mbonambi and Nizaam Carr, who all made it into the top-five rankings as taken from the statistics on the Vodacom Rugby App.
Burger led the charge with the 23 tackles he executed and was followed by Mbonambi and the Chiefs’ Sam Cane on 19 apiece while Carr made the fourth most with his 18.
The Carries category was a more even contest with the Lions’ Jaco Kriel and Burger equal in second place on 15 behind Victor Vito of the Hurricanes with his 19.
Kriel’s name crops up again in the Lineouts won on own throw category where he took five lineout balls with team-mate Martin Muller leading the statistics with the 10 he took on the day.
Round-17 statistics:
Carries:
1. Victor Vito (Hurricanes) – 19
2. Jaco Kriel (Lions) – 15
3. Schalk Burger (Stormers) – 15
4. Reynold Lee-Lo (Hurricanes) – 14
5. Ardie Savea (Hurricanes) – 13
Tackles:
1. Schalk Burger (Stormers) – 23
2. Bongi Mbonambi (Stormers) – 19
3. Sam Cane (Chiefs) – 19
4. Nizaam Carr (Stormers) – 18
5. Andrew Horrell (Chiefs) – 17
Lineouts won on own throw:
1. Martin Muller (Lions) – 10
2. Rob Simmons (Reds) – 6
3. Rory Arnold (Brumbies) – 6
4. Jaco Kriel (Lions) – 5
5. Scott Fardy (Brumbies) – 5
Lineouts stolen:
1. James Horwill (Reds) – 3
2. Pierre Spies (Bulls) – 2
3. Victor Vito (Hurricanes) – 2
4. Adam Thompson (Reds) – 1
5. Eben Etzebeth (Stormers) – 1
Loose ball collected:
1. Ben Lam (Blues) – 5
2. Dan Carter (Crusaders) – 5
3. Cheslin Kolbe (Stormers) – 4
4. Courtnall Skosan (Lions) – 4
5. Dominic Shipperley (Rebels) – 4
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