BLUES 17
STORMERS 14
KEY POINTS:
Someone, somewhere smiled on the Blues last night, awarding them a last-second victory they were mighty lucky to claim.
The unlikely hero was Ben Atiga, who had been a bit wobbly in most facets of the game including his goal-kicking, but cometh the hour . . .
Betting men would have been going against the midfielder landing a 45m effort from wide on the right, but the 24-year-old hit one out the middle and over she went.
There was almost embarrassed disbelief that after 80 minutes of honest, but mainly flawed toil, the Blues had managed a win after losing two in a row.
Ball retention was poor, very poor, and it blighted the Blues' work to the point this victory gave them all the comfort of a tight-fitting pair of trousers.
Some of their tactical thinking was a little troubled, too, continuing to bust up the guts when the Stormers were packing a huge defensive punch around the fringes.
It was hard not to draw unfavourable comparisons with the work of the Crusaders who, the previous evening, also reverted to close-quarter driving work in the final quarter to stifle a swarming Waratahs defence.
Where the Crusaders kept the legs driving and hit in numbers, the Blues were a little more static, sending single runners one pass out. Such tactics made it easy for the Stormers to slow the release and, at times, snaffle turnovers.
That the Blues made hard work is something coach David Nucifora readily acknowledged, but he saw the night's mission in black and white terms.
"It was the sort of game we just wanted to win," he said. "I was reasonably satisfied with out first-half performance, but the second half got scrappy.
"There were two back rows out there who made it a real contest at the breakdown and neither side could get quick ball.
"It was all a bit of a scramble, but we controlled field possession well enough in the last 10 minutes and we'll take the win and move on."
The longer the game went on, the more they missed Nick Evans, who was a late scratching.
While there were murmurings from the Stormers camp about their certainty Evans was never going to play, Nucifora insisted the decision was only made on Friday after Evans suffered an adverse reaction to his fitness test the day before.
Isaia Toeava had trained at first five all week and maybe as a result of that he felt confident enough to encourage plenty of enterprise, and foster a willingness to run from deep and trust the skills.
As admirable as that was, there were times when the ball just needed to be booted downtown. All that running from deep took its toll and, by the final quarter, there were men on both sides who were gasping.
That's when Evans could have made the difference, changing the angles of attack, playing the percentages and taking the sting out of the Stormers' forwards who were supremely physical at the collision.
That's not to have a pop at Toeava, who did well enough as a makeshift No 10. It's just at this level, a world-class first five stands up and wins games.
Quite what to make of the Blues now is hard to tell. As lucky as they were, they still won and victories build confidence. It has also to be acknowledged that the Stormers are a good team.
They were relentless on defence and they moved the ball out of contact with skill and purpose.
Their coach Rassie Erasmus was philosophical about the loss, partly because he knows his side will soon embark on an extended run of home games and also because he rates the Blues.
"I think the hard thing when you are coaching a team to play against the Blues is that they don't have specific guys you can mark. From Afoa through to Flavell and all the way through the team they have so many special guys who can make something out of nothing.
"I think they will go far just because they have brilliant game-breakers. You can try to mirror what you will face in training but when you come out and play they still do what they do."
