Roar Guru
The Stormers have defeat the Reds 40-22 in a game that was closer than the scoreboard suggests.
REPORT: REDS FADE, STORMERS WIN
The Reds really lost form and discipline in the last 20 minutes. They lead 22-17 with half an hour to go, and to lose the last third of the game or so by 23-0 really isn’t good enough.
Final score
Stormers 40
Reds 22
The Queensland Reds continue their tour of South Africa, travelling to beautiful Cape Town to take on the Stormers. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 11:00pm Saturday (AEDT).
The Stormers welcome the Queensland Reds to the lovely city of Cape Town having seen their lead in the Africa 1 Conference cut to just one point in recent weeks.
Their immediate rivals, the Bulls, have this weekend off, and the Stormers would surely have targeted this game as an opportunity to open up a bit of breathing room at the top of the conference, considering the season of the Reds so far.
They have won five of their last seven matches this season, although they were beaten by the well-drilled Lions last start.
The Reds have won three of their last five games against the Stormers, including the last time they met, and all recent games have been very close (neither team has scored more than 23 points in any of those games). But that’s about all they have going right for them at the moment, despite their win over the Highlanders recently.
Epitomising this is the fact the boys from Brisbane have only won one of their last nine matches in South Africa, which hardly marks them as brilliant tourists.
In addition, the Reds have also lost backrower Jake Schatz for six weeks. He will be replaced tonight by Curtis Browning, who moves to the back of the scrum, with Hendrick Tui coming in at blidside flanker.
Both teams have selected relatively stable squads, with Ayumu Goromaru still missing out on the number 15 shirt for the Reds, with Karmichael Hunt preferred at fullback.
The Stormers will fancy that they have significant advantages up front, and that their centres should do plenty of damage up the middle.
Tip:
The Stormers should be too strong, but it might be closer than many people expect. Stormers 1-12