Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Habana crosses for outstanding Stormers team try vs the Chiefs

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Habana crosses for outstanding Stormers team try vs the Chiefs

The Stormers scored one of the team tries of the season in Hamilton on Friday as they beat the Chiefs 49-15 in the Super 14. Bryan Habana got on the end of a great movement to stroll over, but it was the build up that was sensational to watch.

The Stormers, who have the best defensive record in the tournament this season, scored six tries as the injury ravaged Chiefs tried in vain to break through the defences of the well organised Cape Town based outfit.

The six-tries-to-two win for the touring Stormers means that they are now joint table toppers with the Bulls, but are now strongly fancied as favourites by many.

With the game finely balanced at 6-3 after twenty minutes, they managed to counter attack from a dangerous position, thus producing one of the tries of the season as both forwards and backs handled the ball with incredible ability, offloading in the tackle and retaining possession when they were finally brought down short of the tryline.

A long pass out to supreme finisher Bryan Habana meant he could stroll over to score the try that featured Jaque Fourie twice, Schalk Burger twice, Tiaan Liebenberg twice, Francois Louw, Sireli Naqelivuki, the galloping Andries Bekker, and then scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenhage and flyhalf Peter Grant.

Schalk Burger, who was everywhere on the night and featured prominently in this try, said his side weren’t going to get carried away with the great win, but would enjoy it.

"For a change we're playing some good rugby right up there and the last few seasons we've been labeled the perennial underachievers.

"So obviously it's nice to be up there on the log but you only need one week to put yourself under pressure again in this competition and next week across the ditch we're playing the Reds, who had a really successful tour of South Africa.

"It's tough to go back-to-back in this competition but we managed to do it, so it's been a pretty awesome week," he added.

New Zealand coach Graeme Henry had earlier in the day named the Stormers as the side he feels are the best in the tournament currently. After this performance, and what is without a doubt a contender for Try of the Season, he’s probably not far off.

1st yes but chiefs lost *sob*

By rosh, at April 18, 2010 3:20 pm
Unbelievable try. Offloading, support, speed of the passes, awareness. Beautiful play. No matter what the Chiefs did, they just couldn't get a hand near the ball. Nice touches by Burger too. Stormers looking good.

By FrankyH, at April 18, 2010 3:25 pm
niiice!!! habana nowhere in this action but crosses the line!! ee

Good to see burger playing like this!

By Unknown, at April 18, 2010 3:32 pm
damn what a try that was... i could see it over and over again.. quality!

By cigarro, at April 18, 2010 3:36 pm
Brilliant !
What a work by Fourrie and Burger, both having twice the ball and delivering the good pass at the good moment, and then both here to clean up the last ruck !
Stormers really have a great team down there this year !

By ToulouseFan, at April 18, 2010 3:56 pm
Sorry but that pass from the Stormers hooker was a forward pass...

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 3:59 pm
Anonymous said...
Sorry but that pass from the Stormers hooker was a forward pass...

---

How's that a forward pass??

Great passage of play btw!

By Philip, at April 18, 2010 4:11 pm
Class!!!

By paddy, at April 18, 2010 4:22 pm
@ Anonymous: it's not a forward pass unless the ref says so, mate.

quality try.

By Chris Boy, at April 18, 2010 4:51 pm
that player who protected the ball when the fullback got the ball was amazing, he held of 3 players by himself!without that grunt work this amazing try wouldn't have happened. great try, loads of good stuff in it.

By Unknown, at April 18, 2010 5:03 pm
amazing try

By goodNumber10, at April 18, 2010 5:18 pm
Ten players touched the ball, with four of them touching the ball twice.

The touches of the ball in order. Parenthesis indicate the 1st-10th player to touch it.

Aplon (1), Duvenhage(2), Fourie (3), Burger (4), Becker (5), Liebenberg (6), Burger x2, Naquelevuki (7), Fourie x2, Liebenberg x2, F. Louw (8), Duvenhage x2, Grant (9), Habana (10)

Amazing stuff. I think the 3rd/4th try of the match had almost as many touches as well.

Also great to see Burger offload a bit more. Sometimes he gets blinders on and tries to run people over (even with support).

Alexis -- Habana was on the left wing, and the play went up the right side. Naquelevuki was involved.

ScottHill -- The guy that won the ruck as a 1v3 was Duane Vermuelen.

By cheyanqui, at April 18, 2010 5:19 pm
Beautiful try, if Burger did not have such a poor record of dirty play he'd probably be considered among the best players in the world.

Fourie has to be up there too... Showed all his class in this sequence.

Great final pass as well.

By Canadian Content, at April 18, 2010 5:56 pm
thanks for that cheyanqui,well i think Vermuelen is a bit of a legend with that protection. i follow mainly NH rugby so not sure on all the names in s14. I use to when i had skysports but now i rely on RD!

By Unknown, at April 18, 2010 6:03 pm
Burger IS considered among the best players in the world! A bit of dirty play doesn't make him a worse player, although admittedly he gives away a few penalties every now and then so I'll give you that. He's in incredible form at the moment though, as you could see here.

By Shaft, at April 18, 2010 6:30 pm
Unbelievable!

Like we like to say in Toulouse "Jeu de mains, jeu de toulousains" (hand plays, toulousains plays"

Now we shall add "jeu de stomers aussi"

Best try of the year so far for me

Fourie is a god

By kevdetoulouse, at April 18, 2010 7:55 pm
Becker's pass was forward, the pass to Habana was flat at best. I would take the try if my team scored it, but the forward passes have to take from it.

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 8:50 pm
great try, reminds me of some french flair of old. great stuff to watch

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 9:03 pm
"Becker's pass was forward, the pass to Habana was flat at best."

Absolute B.S. Take your bitter comments elsewhere mate. The only thing taking away from the quality of this try is you and your anonymous comment.

Great try.

By Scotsdale, at April 18, 2010 9:17 pm
44th minute, the 3rd Stormers try, finished off by Liebenberg.

If you count the kick and recover by Aplon, it was also 11 players touching the ball during the possession.

Aplon (1), Naquelevuki (2), Duvenhage (3), Grant (4), de Jongh (5), Duvenhage x2, ??? (camera on Masagaa) , Aplon x2,

Aplon x3 , Habana (6), Grant x2, Harris (7), Duvenhage x3, Grant x3, Burger (8), Bekker (9), Duvenhage x4, Grant x4, Fourie (10), Habana x2, Liebenberg (11)

??? = Camera cut from Duvenhage to Masagaa, and then ball was with Aplon. Could have been pass to someone in between (Brok Harris), but probably not.

Not counting the kick and gather, it's still nine guys:
Aplon (1) , Habana (2), Grant (3), Harris (4), Duvenhage (5), Grant x2, Burger (6), Bekker (7), Duvenhage x2, Grant x3, Fourie (8), Habana x2, Liebenberg (9)
-- no de Jongh or Naquelevuki

By cheyanqui, at April 18, 2010 9:33 pm
awesome try

By sebastian, at April 18, 2010 9:38 pm
Fourie and Burger are AMAZING! Both handle the ball twice each and then still clear out the ruck at the end to secure the try - they are monsters! Can't wait to see BULLS V STORMERS this year!!! Bring it on!!

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 11:19 pm
Becker is brilliant - matfield better watch out!!

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 11:30 pm
^ Oh please - it's a bit early to make such a powerful statement, matfield is king!

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 11:32 pm
Wow - great try! Love it!

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2010 11:33 pm
No pass was forward, get lost you pathetic New Zealanders.

Burger and Fourie are the best in the world at their respective positions, both have world cup winners medals and in the world of rugby, that means that they are already LEGENDS of the game.

By Nani-williams tikiktiki, at April 19, 2010 12:17 am
'Chris Boy said...
@ Anonymous: it's not a forward pass unless the ref says so, mate.

quality try.'

I will remember that quote for many game to come!!!

burgers hands were great!

id say very close call to forward...

By Sam, at April 19, 2010 1:09 am
Nani-williams tikiktiki said...
No pass was forward, get lost you pathetic New Zealanders.

Ha ha what a jerk. Some of you Saffas are a joke.

By iPaddy, at April 19, 2010 3:01 am
It's not a forward if the bal is passed backwards but floats forwards. That's because of simple physics, if you release a ball backwards but are moving forward yourself, the ball will travel backwards thru the air directionally but will also float forwards at the same speed you were travelling when you released it.
People need to learn the rules.

By Anonymous, at April 19, 2010 4:29 am
Awesome try, let the ball do the work, great offloading will beat any defence, doesn't matter how well you can tackle.
NH teams should learn that.

By Tommo, at April 19, 2010 4:30 am
I think the only one who has been a "jerk" here so far, iPaddy, is the guy who couldn't just say what a great try this was and tried to come off as a know-it-all with claims of a "forward pass".

What a great try it was, too. Only way it could've been better is if commentary were by Cliff Morgan and the video was grainy 1970's stuff.

By keogh, at April 19, 2010 4:30 am
Mmmm great try. Not a fan of some booing by a few petty. Its a great score, give 'em their dues (right spelling?) Same for the conversion kick! Fourie's line hitting the offload was unstoppable! was impressed with the skills of Burger too.

By Alexander, at April 19, 2010 4:40 am
Plus that 'forward' pass is FLAT! Watched it continuously, not a problem in that offload!!

By Alexander, at April 19, 2010 4:44 am
"What a great try it was, too. Only way it could've been better is if commentary were by Cliff Morgan and the video was grainy 1970's stuff."

Agreed keogh. There's a video editing challenge for someone.

By Greiffel, at April 19, 2010 7:36 am
^^^^
Schalk Burger looks like one of those old school 70s players. Bad ass.

By Anonymous, at April 19, 2010 11:50 am
that's what i called "un essai de classe" - (a classy try?)
i like the permanent support of burger during all the action. fantastic player !

By Frenchman, at April 19, 2010 12:15 pm
Jasses that was awesome. But the last pass was well forwards I think. He passed it pretty much on the 5m but Habana caught it pretty much on the tryline.

I hope I'm wrong.

By Prop#3, at April 19, 2010 12:39 pm
"It's not a forward if the bal is passed backwards but floats forwards. That's because of simple physics, if you release a ball backwards but are moving forward yourself, the ball will travel backwards thru the air directionally but will also float forwards at the same speed you were travelling when you released it.
People need to learn the rules."

Not true. From the IRB laws:

A knock-on occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it.
‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.

A throw forward occurs when a player throws or passes the ball forward. ‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.

There are two exceptions, but these refer to charge-downs and bounce forwards, neither of which apply. If you pass the ball and it travels forwards of a line, parallel to the trylines, that passes through where you passed it, it's a forward pass. There is no momentum rule in rugby.

Still, a fucking awesome try. Maybe the ref just didn't want to disallow it ;-)

By Prop#3, at April 19, 2010 12:46 pm
Prop#3, it's hard to tell where your quoting from the IRB ends.. but from what I can tell you added a bit on their yourself.

Peter Grant didn't throw the ball forward, according to what you quoted. He threw it back or laterally, which is fine.

If you watch any match closely you'll see loads of these passes mate, and one of the reasons for that is the camera angle. I'm pretty sure if they were considered to be forward by the players around, you'd see them gesticulating like mad, which you dont very often.

Top try. Love it. Pity I read the pissy comments.

By Pat, at April 19, 2010 2:09 pm
Here is a video that speaks of the "ravelling forward is not forward" interpretation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMlDy2jP9s

Then again, it was issued by the ARU many years ago, and the Aussies were probably so keen to recruit league players that they were willing to allow a few of the famous league "flat" passes. ;)

By cheyanqui, at April 19, 2010 3:26 pm
"ravelling" = "travelling"

By cheyanqui, at April 19, 2010 3:26 pm
On another note, it would be great to submit this video to the IRB for a law ruling, and get them to opine.

I know this thing is marked "ARU", but this could have been any old dude in Brisbane with a computer and some clip art.

By cheyanqui, at April 19, 2010 3:28 pm
And last pass is definitely forward if you stop the images at both throwing and catching.

By Anonymous, at April 19, 2010 5:00 pm
Anyone on here calling even hinting at a forward pass is an asshole who needs to play get out more and play rugby on their own.

Watch the video just added (Toulon v. Perpignan) and tell me that any of the tries that end with a winger/fullback in the corner doesn't come from the exact same sort of pass that Habana got.

Or, for that matter, watch any number of matches where there are dozens of the exact same pass, none of which is called by the referee as "forward".

In summary, the two anonymous posters and prop #3, you are all cocks.

By tana umaga is a beast, at April 19, 2010 5:29 pm
last pass is definitely forward but who cares it was an awesome try!

By BODisgod, at April 19, 2010 5:53 pm
Good to see Burgers passing linking game improving.

By Wessel, at April 19, 2010 7:52 pm
"Tana Umaga is a beast" - You play rugby on your own do you? Not surprising.

I maintain that a pass is forwards when it leaves the player's hand and is travelling towards the try line. Expecting referees to judge speed and momentum is fucking stupid, and isn't anywhere in the rules.

By Prop#3, at April 19, 2010 8:46 pm
"Expecting referees to judge speed and momentum is fucking stupid, and isn't anywhere in the rules."

Great. They do it all the time. The point is that never in a million years should that pass be called as forward by a referee.

99% of the time, it never will be called forward by anyone other than snide internet commentators and maybe Brian Moore.

By tana umaga is a beast, at April 19, 2010 9:38 pm
Does anyone know why Habana moved to the Stormers? I hadn't heard about this move. Do any saffas know why?

By John F, at April 19, 2010 11:02 pm
people genuinly don't know the rules.
The rule refers only to the action of throwing or passing the ball in a backwardas direction.
The ball will then, due to physics, float forward thru the air at the same speed as the player who passed it is travelling.
This is unavoidable , it's bloody physics, and if it wasn't taken into account 50% of passes would be technically forward passes.
They aren't though, because refs actually know the rules.
If you don't know physics, it is possible for a ball to travel backwards directionally, having been thrown backwards, and also float forwards at the same time.
It's not something within a players control.
Often people will not notice it if the player who releases the pass continues to run forward, it simply looks like the ball has been passed correctly. When a player is hit as he releases though, people often then see a forward pass.
The thing is, people who see it that way don't really understand the rule.
Technically, if a player throwas or passes it backwards, and momentum then carries it forwards theru the air (again, physics), it's still a legal pass, under any circumstances.

By Anonymous, at April 20, 2010 1:42 am
Pass wasn't forward, stop being so self righteous and denying this try.

I know most people hate South African rugby players because they're world champions X2 and generally do very well. But give credit where credits due and stop being sour.

This is coming from a Fijian.

By Clerk Sivivatu, at April 20, 2010 5:42 am
Well said Anonymous two up. Next time use a name though when posting please. You make sense, and summed it up perfectly.

By Shaft, at April 20, 2010 10:16 am
@Anonymous two up: stop writing bullshit, you can countereffect the momentum of the ball when passing, that is simple physics. That actually an effort each player has to do!
And that a superb try, however you cant deny the forward pass even how slight it is.
Many tries come from that kind of pass and they deserve to be scored. Ref don't blow at those because most of the time they cant notice it at real speed and from their position. For the record we are playing and watching a live sport and you cant rely on camera to check every single bit of it.

By Anonymous, at April 20, 2010 12:41 pm
Geeez guys you are all such babies....no one is saying this try should be disallowed or its bad, they are merely saying that the last pass was forward...

at the end of the day if you pass it and it goes to the oppo try line its forward!!!

By Anonymous, at April 20, 2010 6:27 pm
Habana moved to the Stormers as Cape Town is the most beautiful place in SA to live - simple as! Also a little less crime there.

By Anonymous, at April 20, 2010 9:49 pm
Habana moved to the Stormers as Cape Town is the most beautiful place in SA to live - simple as! Also a little less crime there.

By Anonymous, at April 20, 2010 9:49 pm
anonomous, that is the rule, anyone who's reffed would know.
If you don't know the rules, that's fine, but there's no need to swear.
Keep it civil.
And I'm the guy who wrote about the forward pass rule.
I think there's a clip somewhere of John Eales (world cup winning captain) explaining the rule, if I find it I'll post it here.

By Bill, at April 21, 2010 1:15 am
Oh, and I'm afraid you're wrong about the physics.
The ball will always travel forward at the same speed as the player is moving. If he passes it on enough of a backward angle, and the receiver catches it at the right place, it might be behind the point where he passed it.
That's all a moot point though, if you knew the rules, you'd realise the rule only refers to the action of the player, 'passing backwards'.
So if he releases the ball in a backwards direction, it is largely irelevant where the ball is caught, the pass is legal.
This might offend or frustrate you as it doesn't meet with your expectations of what the rule should be (I imagine like alot of people you want the rule to be simple - if it is caught forward of where it's thrown it's forward).
The problem is that many, many passes would be called forward that currently are not, maybe as many as half.
And it would be frustrating as the players would be doing everything in their power to get the ball to go backwards.
Either way if you don't like the rule take it up with the IRB.

By Bill, at April 21, 2010 1:51 am