Stormers Secure Hard-Fought Victory To Get Back To Winning Ways

The Stormers got back to winning ways in the Investec Champions Cup following their brutal defeat last week against Harlequins – with a hard-fought 39-26 victory over Leicester Tigers at DHL Stadium on Saturday.

After a solid all-round performance, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu led his team to a victory in his very first outing as captain.

Both teams signalled their intent early, giving the ball air, using the width of the pitch, and running the ball. 

However, the Stormers allowed their early advantage to slip and, as has been the theme in the last few match days, allowed the opposition back into the game.

As early as the fifth minute, Ntuthuko Mchunu was forced to leave the field for a HIA and was replaced by Vernon Matongo as the former was tackled high by prop Will Hurd. Hurd was yellow-carded to give the Stormers the numbers advantage. 

Evan Roos celebrated his contract extension with his seventh try of the season, with an assist from Paul de Villiers – after a pop pass from Feinberg-Mngomezulu that allowed Johnathon Roche to glide through the Leicester defence effortlessly.

With the stand-in captain slotting the conversion, the Stormers went into a 7-0 lead after seven minutes.

The lead was doubled in the 16th minute as a maul following a Stormers lineout resulted in Andre-Hugo Venter peering away and dotting down – from an acute angle, Feinberg-Mngomezulu sliced his conversion attempt.

Leicester were determined to show that they were not merely in Cape Town to make up the numbers as fullback George Pearson replied in the 22nd minute, followed by a moment of magic as Will Wand scored in the 27th minute. 

On both occasions, Billy Searle added the extras. 

In a matter of five minutes, Leicester stunned the Cape Town crowd to take the lead and turn the game around in a massive swing of momentum.

DHL Stadium was aghast as Billy Searle missed a sitter in front of the poles as Leicester were well in the ascendancy. 

Despite this, the Stormers closed out the first half with a Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty for the most slender of leads, 15-14.

HALF-TIME: STORMERS 15-14 LEICESTER TIGERS

Leicester drew first blood within five minutes of the second half as hooker Jamie Blamire scored a try similar to his counterpart Andre-Hugo Venter – from a maul following a successful lineout.

Searle scored the conversion as Leicester took the lead 21-15.

The Cape Town faithful were on their feet again as silky handling by the Stormers allowed De Villiers to wriggle away from a few tackles before off-loading to Leolin Zas for the touchdown.

The conversion from Feinberg-Mngomezulu gave the Stormers the one-point advantage again, 22-21 after the 50-minute mark.

It was the Stormers’ turn to play with a man down as captain Feinberg-Mngomezulu was sent to the sin-bin in the 63rd minute for leading with his arm.

Although the game ebbed and flowed, it was in the 67th minute that JD Schickerling scored a try that any back would be proud of as he sold a wonderful dummy before securing the five-pointer.

Imad Khan slotted the conversion in the absence of Feinberg-Mngomezulu as the Stormers increased their lead by eight, 29-21.

Khan added a penalty, but with rain pelting down in the final 10 minutes, Tom Manz scored a try to force a tense end to the game.

Searle missed the subsequent conversion as the Stormers led by six heading into the dying minutes of the game. 

With the crowd in the terraces scattering to evade the unexpected rain, the Stormers closed the game off as if they were chasing it and – scoring a wonderful late try by Khan – secured a valuable victory to take their record for the season to 11 wins from 12.