The DHL Stormers have been one of the form teams in the international club game during the northern hemisphere season but on Sunday they took on the role of Father Christmas as they helped their opponents Harlequins out of their much spoken of crisis by helping them to a big 61-10 confidence saving win.
Harlequins have been in the throes of a crisis but eagerly seized on the gifts that were showered down as a belated more than a fortnight late Stormers playing Santa, with the early stages when the Quins' confidence could have been tested proving a particularly charitable time.
Only time will tell how badly the nine try defeat in this third round Investec Champions Cup game hurts the Stormers, for after all they went with a very under-strength team and with four debutants in the match day 23 and were significantly weaker than we might have expected during a week where there was little information given out about who had travelled and who hadn’t.
But as far as performances go it was completely and utterly inept and while it is hardly just the South African teams that send understrength teams on transcontinental trips in this competition, their performance at the Twickenham Stoop will hardly change the minds of the many northern hemisphere rugby supporters who view this country’s participation as an irritation.
QUINS GIFTED PLATFORM TO DAZZLE
Not that the Harlequins will mind that the Stormers left so much loose ball lying around for a team motivated by all the crisis talk and with that ball they were able to exploit a passive and at times disorganised looking Stormers defensive system. Let it be said too that the ball did bounce for Harlequins, sometimes quite freakily so, while there were also a few odd calls from the referee, but there’s some merit in that old saying you make your own luck.
And Harlequins will certainly be thankful for the luck they enjoyed in terms of running into the Stormers when they were in such a charitable mood. The Stormers did dominate the scrums and they also gave better than they got in the lineouts, but the hosts dominated territory in the first half, perhaps not surprising as they did appear to have the wind at their backs, and they used good field position to score five tries that helped them open up a 33-0 lead.
That really was that for the game as a contest, but the Stormers had said before departure that they would take a bonus point as a win. That was what they needed to really put themselves in the pound seats for a home round of 16 game (they are already almost assure of round of 16 qualification) so there was still interest in it at halftime - with the wind at their backs and perhaps with Harlequins feeling they already had it won, could they score four tries?
They did score two late in the game to Imad Khan and Dylan Maart, but the hosts negated having to play into the wind in that period with the way they dominated the breakdowns. If there was one first choice player that coach John Dobson could have included who might have made a difference it was Paul de Villiers, their master ball scavenger.
First defeat of the season. #HARvSTO #inittogether pic.twitter.com/gaOsvhbxdu
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 11, 2026
Ruan Ackermann for his physicality might have been another but alas he was injured against the Bulls and did not travel with the team as intended. The best Stormers player by a million miles was Ben-Jason Dixon who was a tyro both on defence, as a ball carrier and in the tight loose throughout, while skipper Damian Willemse was off having what must have been a HIA assessment from the sixth minute, when man of the match Jack Kenningham scored Harlequins’ first try, until the 20th, by which time Harlequins had added additional tries through Cadan Murphy, who slid over in the corner after a good bounce for Quins off a Stormers hand, and then No 8 Alex Dombrandt surged through to score from a straight run off a switch move.
That made it 19-0 by the time Willemse returned to the field and by then the Stormers were chasing the game. Much of their success in a season which before this had seen them go 10 games unbeaten revolved around a more pragmatic approach built around forward dominance and a strong bench that could bring the famous Springbok bomb squad effect, but the team wasn’t really set up for that in this game.
There were three debutants on the bench, which was set up in the traditional 5:3 split rather than the 6:2, and it is difficult to be pragmatic when you are 19-0 behind. Ask the Vodacom Bulls, who suffered the same fate on their own field the day before. In both instances the chasing teams became far too loose and were punished.
That said, the Stormers’ back up front row maintained the dominance the starters had enjoyed, but everything was just so disjointed behind the scrum that it didn’t count for anything. It wasn’t until the final quarter that the Stormers were able to hold onto possession for more than a couple of phases and by then the game was long gone.
Before this game Harlequins had conceded an average of 41 points over a period of time, so perhaps the Stormers underestimated the staunch defensive effort Harlequins put in, the second week in a row that happened because the equally inept Bulls defensive system managed to only concede two tries in the previous week’s Vodacom URC derby.
Impact off the bench ⚡
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) January 11, 2026
Imad Khan gets the Stormers' first points of the day 🔢
đź“ş Stream #InvestecChampionsCup on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/WFQ7VZuUmX
SIX DAY TURNAROUND FORCED STORMERS' HAND
The Stormers had to go understrength to London because there is just a six day turnaround before they face Leicester Tigers in their final game in Cape Town next Saturday. Given that Leicester are in position to send a mix and match team to the DHL Stadium much like the one that the Stormers sent to the Stoop, perhaps the Stormers should have gone all in against Harlequins.
But given how desperate Harlequins were and how well they played on a day where they were definitely the team that needed it more, a win even with the full strength Stormers team might have been hard to come by. Although you would imagine the Stormers full strength unit wouldn’t have as eagerly embraced the Saint Nicholas vibe as this team did.
Scores
Harlequins 61 - Tries: Jack Kenningham, Cadan Murphy, Alex Dombrandt, Nick David 3, Chandler Cunningham-South, Jarrod Evans and Zach Carr; Conversions: Marcus Smith 8. DHL Stormers 10 - Tries: Imad Khan and Dylan Maart.