Sensational Second Half By Stormers As Lions Beat Bulls At Loftus

The Stormers produced an epic second-half comeback to score twenty-one unanswered second-half points and maintain their unbeaten record in this year’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship at Thomond Park in Limerick with a 27-21 victory. 

In a top-of-the-table battle, the only unbeaten teams left in this year’s URC faced off, with the Stormers coming out victorious. 

The Stormers could not have wished for a worse start as Connor Evans was sent to the sin-bin as early as the third minute for a cynical obstruction.

Despite this Jurie Matthee slotted a penalty to give the men from Cape Town a 3-0 lead. 

Not long after, Munster struck with a try by Irish international Tadhg Beirne as a pass from Gavin Coombes allowed him to pierce their defense, then sold a wonderful dummy for an easy route to the try line. Jack Crowley made no mistake with the conversion to give Munster a 7-3 lead.

After the Stormers pack got a powerful push at the scrum, a penalty was won to which Matthee obliged – reducing the deficit to just one point, 7-6.

The Stormers were struggling and scrambling against the high tempo of Munster, and after being warned for repeated infringements, the referee lost his patience and issued a yellow card to Marcel Theunissen – already the second on the night for the Stormers.

John Hodnett’s try was allowed after consultation with the TMO, and the successful conversion by Jack Crowley extended Munster’s lead to 14-6. 

Crowley’s magnificent start to the night got better when he dotted down in the 28th minute as the Stormers were struggling to keep up and left gaping holes in their defense. 

Crowley made no mistake with the conversion, giving the Stormers work to do, trailing 21-6. 

HALF-TIME: MUNSTER 21-6 STORMERS

The Stormers thought they got off to the perfect start in the second half, but a try was disallowed after review by the TMO for obstruction in the lead-up. 

They continued with positive intent and with a mentality to not give up, and were rewarded with a try in the 58th minute by Andre Smith. With the try converted, it reduced the deficit to eight. Munster were still ahead 21-13.

To give the Stormers a bit more incentive, Gavin Coombes was shown a yellow card for a trip, leaving the final quarter interesting.  

While the first half was free-flowing, the second bore witness to impressive fight and resilience by the men in blue and white. 

They sucked in the Munster defence before Matthee’s pinpoint cross kick fell perfectly into the hands of debutant Dylan Maart to cause panic among the Munster faithful. Matthee put away a tough conversion to make it a one-point game. 

Mere minutes later, Ruhan Nel snatched an intercept and ran the length of the field to hand the lead to the Stormers for the first time in the game. Matthee obliged with the conversion to give them a six-point lead, 27-21. 

Tom Farrell thought he responded immediately with his try, and Crowley converted, but the try was disallowed due to a knock-on in the build-up. 

The victory leaves the Stormers unbeaten while Munster suffer their first defeat of the season.

Earlier in the day, the Lions landed a significant blow and secured an emphatic victory over the Bulls in the Jukskei derby in a 76-point thriller, winning 43-33. 

The mauling began early with the Lions scoring two tries, the second by scrumhalf Nico Steyn after a sensational breakaway by flyhalf Chris Smith – as well as slotting a penalty for a 17-0 lead. 

The last ten minutes of the first half went into a frenzy as the Bulls bounced back with two tries by Embrose Papier. Quan Horn then scored to increase the lead again before Akker van der Merwe powered his way over the line to take the score to 22-19 in favour of the Lions going into half-time.

In the second half, tries by Ettienne Oosthuizen, followed by a conversion, increased the least to ten. Nico Steyn completed his hat-trick in the 74th minute to seal victory at Loftus Versfeld – the first for the Lions in two years. 

The margin of defeat would’ve been greater for the Bulls had they not scored two late tries by Keagan Johannes and Seb de Klerk, which brought an air of respectability to the scoreline as the Lions secured a statement victory. 

The victory allowed the Lions to leapfrog into seventh while the Bulls dropped down to eighth.