Stormers 35

Leinster 0

Jon Cardinelli reports from DHL Stadium, Cape Town

THE STORMERS DELIVERED a superior set-piece showing to lay the platform for an emphatic victory against Leinster in Cape Town on Friday night.

Leo Cullen’s charges travelled to Cape Town this week without a host of British & Irish Lions players, yet started the match as favourites against a Stormers team missing Springboks Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach and Damian Willemse.

In the end, the visitors failed to claim so much as a point on the scoreboard – and recorded their third-straight defeat at the Cape Town Stadium since the URC’s inception.

Nineteen thousand tickets were sold for this fixture, which played out on a warm spring evening. Given the favourable conditions, running rugby and a feast of tries were expected.

Both teams attempted to lift the tempo early but they were undone time and again by handling errors, poor decision-making and a lack of synergy. Perhaps the latter was to be expected in the first game of the season.

Two Stormers tries were chalked off in the first half, while out-half Jurie Matthee slotted two from four from the tee and sent a drop-goal attempt wide. Several surges into the Leinster 22 culminated in a turnover or a penalty to the opposition.

Meanwhile, Leinster’s scrum leaked penalties, and hooker Gus McCarthy struggled to find his lineout jumpers on a dry and relatively windless evening.

The scoreboard at half-time told a story, with the Stormers leading 6-0.

The visitors made the worst-possible start to the second stanza, with Sam Prendergast’s kick-off failing to travel 10 metres. The hosts won a breakdown penalty in the same play, and Matthee bisected the uprights to steer his team into an important two-score lead at 9-0.

Yet another mistake from Leinster allowed the Stormers to regain possession thereafter, and a surge up the middle of the park culminated in a try for scrum-half Stefan Ungerer under the posts.

Matthee made no mistake with the conversion, and suddenly the Stormers were out to a 16-point lead.

Leinster’s problems at the set piece persisted, and from the 50th minute, Cullen started to ring the changes to the front and second rows.

But Stormers coach John Dobson went to his own bench, unleashing Springbok utility forward BJ Dixon and Ruan Ackermann, who recently joined from Gloucester.

The home side continued to boss the scrums, and their passes started to stick. The partisan crowd started to cheer every scrum penalty awarded as if was try.

Leinster heads began to drop. When Prendergast was subbed in the 60th minute, the hosts appeared to be on course for a bonus-point win, and the visitors for a substantial and humbling defeat.

Replacement Max Deegan was shown a yellow card in the 62nd minute for a cynical offence deep in opposition territory, and the Stormers proceeded to bulldoze the Leinster pack from short range thereafter, with Evan Roos eventually scoring.

Leinster continued to spiral, with winger Tommy O’Brien receiving 10 minutes in the bin after a high shot on Seabelo Senatla. Once again, the Stormers forwards made the visitors pay. A powerful maul yielded their third try through Ruan Ackermann.

And the hosts weren’t done yet.

Matthee ghosted through a gap in the 72nd minute, and proceeded to race 40-odd metres to score the bonus-point try.

The Stormers out-half finished the game with a personal tally of 20 points. The fact that he left a further 14 on the field through missed goal-kicks serves to show how emphatically Leinster were outplayed.

Stormers scorers:

• Tries: Stefan Ungerer, Evan Roos, Ruan Ackermann, Jurie Matthee
• Conversions: Matthee [3 from 4]
• Penalty: Matthee [3 from 6]

STORMERS: Wandisile Simelane, Seabelo Senatla, Ruhan Nel (captain), Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas, Jurie Matthee, Stefan Ungerer; Vernon Matongo, André-Hugo Venter, Neethling Fouché, Adré Smith, JD Schickerling, Paul de Villiers, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos.
Replacements: JJ Kotze, Olly Reid, Zachary Porthen, Ruben van Heerden, Ruan Ackermann, Marcell Theunissen, Dewaldt Duvenage, Clinton Swart

LEINSTER: Jimmy O’Brien, Tommy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Ciaran Frawley, Jordan Larmour, Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath; Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani, Diarmund Mangan, Brian Deeny, Ryan Baird, Scott Penny, James Culhane
Replacements: John McKee, Paddy McCarthy, Andrew Sparrow, Max Deegan, Will Connors, Fintan Gunne, Harry Byrne

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)