Rain abates for Cats to get the points

It was warm comfort for the Cats to take four points out of Saturday's Super 12 fixture when at one stage a violent storm had threatened abandonment as the Ellis Park pitch surrounds were fast turned into torrents of water and lightning bolts ominously lit up the heavens around the Doornfontein Stadium.

A quickly erected ramp prevented wet feet when water lapped at above ankle height at the players' entrance from the cavernous tunnel.

Some of the Cats' players admitted to being caught off-guard mentally by the short notice of the new kickoff time following referee Jonathan Kaplan's 20 minute delay before they edged out the hitherto unbeaten Stormers 22-18 to secure a second win and a sound base for the four-match excursion to Australia and New Zealand.

But a bare scoreline tells little of the closeness of a gripping contest which, despite the soggy conditions - the surface stood up remarkably well to the near-cyclonic downpour - produced some compelling rugby.

Much of it came from the Laurie Mains-schooled Cats. In conceding that his squad was still making too many mistakes, the coach was delighted at the calibre of their two tries.

In contrast, the Stormers - happy to have earned a bonus point for the narrow margin of defeat - had to rely on kicks for their points, six of which contained two unlikely yet remarkable drop goals in the slushy conditions from Springbok fullback, Percy Montgomery.

Coach Alan Solomons conceded that on the balance of play, the Cats deserved their victory. "They took their chances better and we paid for our mistakes. Both tries came from us turning the ball over when we tried to run out of defence," he said. "They played more effective rugby in the conditions than we did, because too often we tried to run the ball in high-risk situations."

In his assessment of a gripping battle dominated by aggressive tackling, Mains complimented his players while also applauding the part the Stormers played in limiting the Cats' tries to two, both scored in a 43-minute first half which the home team shaded at 16-15.

He pointed out that eight of his team are new to Super 12 and "they have to learn how to do things, how to avoid silly mistakes in these pressurised situations."

If the Stormers didn't quite match Saturday evening's spectacular and at times frightening weather, the setback brought home the full impact of how much work remains to be done. Captain Corne Krige admitted as much: "We thought we were good, now we know we are not that good.

"So it's back to the drawing board to put right some of what went wrong."

For all that, the Stormers' levels of commitment couldn't be faulted and Krige himself got through a mountain of tackling.

Most of their forwards are able to run and chase all day, so there were tired legs on the soggy turf which made it imperative for Solomons to throw on all his four pack replacements.

But the Cats more than matched them for stamina and resolve. Few have a better engine than Andre Vos.

The Springbok No 8, white strapping over his forehead, at times resembling a fallen halo through the eerie murk and slanting rain, won the Man of the Match award, an accolade he earned the hard way as the fulcrum of the Cats' defensive patterns.

It was a tribute to Vos and his pack mates that Mains only needed to call on Johan Ackermann and Pierre Ribbens as late substitutes in a scrum which some pre-match pundits had predicted would have problems against the Stormers' starting front five.

It was two hammer blows within three minutes from the 18th minute which set the Cats on their way. First Chester Williams turned back the clock to 1995 when he scurried over for the first try in the left hand corner in front of the Touch Down restaurant, a scoring spot during his four-try rampage against Western Samoa and then had a hand in initiating the move which sent hooker Leon Boshoff away via several pairs of hands to round off a try Mains described as a "pearler".

Hopes of a bonus point for four tries were buoyant then but the progressively difficult conditions and some wrong options kept a tight, attritional second half scoring down to 6-3 for the Cats.

In a wonderful forward effort none did better than the home frontrow of Marius Mostert, Leon Boshoff and Willie Meyer while behind them Jannes Labuschagne, now fully comfortable in his conversion from loose forward to the heart of the scrum, and Victor Matfield, continue to grow into a formidable pairing.

Throw into the mix the loose trio of Piet Krause - filling in admirably for the injured Johan Erasmus - Andre Venter and Vos and the Cats will surprise a few more respected squads overseas.

Only the midfield and particularly inside centre remains a worry now that Japie Mulder is out for two weeks.

But Mains and the Cats are delighted with their position. They leave as the only unbeaten SA squad and who would have said a month ago that they would be this country's early trailblazers for a top four finish. Funny old game Super 12 rugby.

Scorers: Cats - tries: Leon Boshoff, Chester Williams; penalties: Kobus Engelbrecht (4). Stormers - penalties: Braam van Straaten (4); drop goals: Percy Montgomery (2).