Stormers’ Jurie Matthee (right) tackled by Leicester Tigers’ Jasper Wiese. Photo: BackpagePix
Young Stormers star soaks up knowledge from Pollard
Stormers coach John Dobson has shared how young Jurie Matthee shared a special moment with Handre Pollard on Sunday.
Stormers’ Jurie Matthee (right) tackled by Leicester Tigers’ Jasper Wiese. Photo: BackpagePix
This past weekend, 23-year-old Jurie Matthee made his Stormers debut in their clash against the Leicester Tigers in the opening round of the Champions Cup.
The young flyhalf who featured regularly for Western Province in the Currie Cup last season, subsequently produced a highly impressive and mature performance opposite number Handre Pollard, who was the Man of the Match for the Tigers.
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Although the Stormers ultimately suffered an agonising loss, Dobson spoke afterwards about how Matthee and Pollard were catching up after the encounter.
“They’re sitting outside in the passage talking now (Pollard and Matthee), which is special,” said Dobson. “Jurie didn’t even play a friendly for us, he’s never worn a Stormers jersey. He just seemed so mature, didn’t he? Nothing bothered him, even when things went wrong – now they’re sitting in the passage and talking. It’s a cool story and a good reflection of South Africa.”
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Stormers loss tough to take for Dobson
“Unfortunately, the hope killed us,” said Dobson. “At half-time we started to believe, that scrum where we made the mistake was us going for the win … to have nothing out of it is really disappointing. It still feels like it’ll take a while to process the disappointment of losing that point. The first goal was to play with pride and show that we could compete at this level with that team, we ticked that box wholeheartedly, but we were disappointed not to get the log point.
“How the game ended was very disappointing, we thought we had done enough to certainly get that point or even burgle it (the win). There were some performances and so many positives in terms of learning to play in these conditions, that was a far higher level than the URC (United Rugby Championship) games we lost on tour.
“Understanding the conditions, the kicking game was a major positive. The performances of (lock) Connor Evans, (flyhalf) Jurie Matthee and (No 8) Keke Morabe, the next generation Stormers were pretty cool.”
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