Cape Town - All the work and preparation the Stormers did on Exeter Chiefs before their Champions Cup quarter-final did not prepare them to be blown away in the first 20 to 30 minutes of the match.
The home side, in front of a vocal crowd at Sandy Park in Exeter, took the game to the Stormers from the kick-off and never allowed the visitors to get any hold of the ball to spark their attack.
The Cape side also looked lethargic for a large part of the match but John Dobson, Stormers head coach, did not lay the blame for their 42-17 loss at the door of travel fatigue.
They only had their first full training session on Thursday as the final part of their travel group - split into four - arrived in England on Wednesday evening.
"Exeter's first 20 minutes I haven't seen in all the work we've done on them, we haven't seen that from them in a while. They were superb and literally blew us away," Dobson said after the match.
"We were entirely flat, but the way they attacked, their physicality, I just felt we were on the ropes from minute one. Credit to Exeter for their fight.”
Nothing went the way of the Stormers in that first half and the score of 21-0 going into halftime shows it.
They couldn't get anything going on the attack with flyhalf Manie Libbok and fullback Damian Willemse watched closely by the Exeter defence.
What was probably the most disappointing for the side, was the way they defended.
Normally they would dominate with big hits and often rely on double tackles to drive attackers back. They struggled to execute that and the Chiefs' attackers found plenty of space out wide and in-between tacklers.
Fullback Tom Wyatt scored a brilliant try off a crossfield kick that landed in space, while wingers Jack Nowell and Ollie Woodburn both slipped through would-be tacklers for their tries.
"In that first 20 minutes, we were making too many single tackles, we weren't going in for any steals and their ball was too quick. That's something where we certainly missed Deon (Fourie).”
Fourie is set for a spell on the sidelines after fracturing his cheekbone against Harlequins in the Champions Cup a week ago.
@Leighton_K
IOL Sport