The DHL Stormers took a significant step towards qualification for the round of 16 in the Investec Champions Cup with a well deserved 31-24 win over the Sale Sharks at the DHL Stadium on Saturday but they gifted their opponents a losing bonus point that may come back to haunt them.
A full house of five points and another great night in front of the Faithful. #STOvSHA #iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/B8UK08jTZA
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 13, 2024
The Stormers netted a full house of five log points by scoring four tries in the game but with a top four position in the six team pool needed in order to guarantee passage to the next round, the sloppiness that on a few occasions let Sale back into the game could prove costly if they don’t do the business against Stade Francais next weekend and other teams in contention win well.
The Stormers’ task is eased by the fact that Sale next week host LaRochelle, and one of those will cancel the other out, so the reality is the Stormers are in the pound seats. But shouldn't be happy that they had a great chance to make it safe as they had Sale on the ropes for most of the game and they didn't take it. In particular, they will lament the way they appeared to present the visitors with gift points.
GIFT SCORES
The Stormers were never headed in the game and never looked like losing, but on three occasions they took significant leads only to allow the visitors back with what could be described as gift tries.
One of those came on the stroke of halftime, when Damian Willemse kicked a rolling ball dead rather than pick it up and from the resulting five metre scrum Sale profited from a free kick that they tapped and Argentina veteran international Augustin Creevy scored. The Stormers had been 21-7 ahead so when Robert du Preez converted from the touchline the Sharks were back in it as the Stormers took a 21-14 lead into the break.
And with eight minutes remaining, with the Stormers leading 31-17 and poised to take a 5 log point to zero advantage into the final round against a team that was level with them on log points at the start of the round, the wing Leolin Zas tried a pass on his own tryline only to put it in the hands of Sale centre Sam Bedlow.
The Du Preez conversion proved the final score of the game, but it would have been because of the Stormers’ eagerness to deny their opponents a bonus point that they elected for Manie Libbok to kick at posts with a penalty as the sands of time ran out and the hooter sounded. Libbok missed narrowly, and the visitors had the satisfaction of at least leaving Cape Town with a bonus point from a game where they were missing several big name players.
Of course it would be churlish to focus too much on the Sale bonus point, and the Stormers did thoroughly deserve to win as they were the superior team across the entire 80 minutes. It’s just that bonus points have huge significance in pool play in the Champions Cup, and the Sharks did manage to achieve what the Stormers failed to do when they went to Welford Road with a second string team at the start of the competition.
STORMERS BRINGING BACK THEIR ATTACKING DAZZLE
The Stormers though will have ended the game feeling that they are on the cusp of returning their attacking game to the levels it has been at during some parts of the past two seasons, and some of the tries they scored, and some of those that were disallowed, were top drawer as they brought the bling back to their transition and counter-attacking game.
The Stormers never made much headway when it came to their driving maul in the red zone, and they were actually dispossessed on a few occasions by the opposing pack, one of those happening in the early minutes before the Stormers got the scoreboard moving in the ninth minute when Hacjivah Dayimani, who was everywhere in this game, powered through a poor defensive effort after an initial carry from prop Sti Sithole. Libbok’s conversion made it 7-0.
The Stormers scrum again came to the party and forced a few penalties, there were some good takes of the contestable kicks by the likes of Leolin Zas, but the Stormers wasted an excellent attacking opportunity when lock Adre Smith was penalised for diving into a ruck after 22 minutes.
That reversed penalty near the Sale line didn’t hold up the Stormers however as centre Suleiman Hartzenberg scored a charged down try that put his team 14-0 after 24 minutes.
The impression that the Stormers might run away with the game from that point was quickly scotched by what looked like some defensive dysfunction that led to Sale lock Jonny Hill scoring his team’s first try three minutes after the Hartzenberg try.
PATTERN WAS SET
And so the pattern of the game was set. A brilliant break out from Dayimani set up the field position from which the Stormers attacked off a lineout and wing Zas scythed into the line and through the opposing defence to make it 21-7 after 34 minutes.
The Stormers had an excellent chance to go further ahead when Willemse set up an attacking lineout with an excellent 50/22 but the lineout was sloppy and a few minutes later it was Sale scoring on the other end of the field through Creevy, something which must have sent Stormers coach John Dobson into halftime feeling extremely frustrated.
Sale were highly physical with their defence and advanced at times like kamikaze pilots, and they resisted Stormers pressure at the start of the second half to the extent that they were the first to score after halftime when Du Preez kicked a penalty.
That was the cue though for the Stormers to score what might go down as one of their tries of the season, one that confirmed their bling is back, as they turned over a lineout deep in their own half, something they did fairly often in the game, and brilliant Dayimani handling created the space needed to set Zas free down the left touchline. Dayimani was there to carry the attack on before transferring back to Zas for the score. That was the bonus point try and that point was huge, but the Stormers might feel this was a time to be greedy. It would have been better had they stopped Sale from getting anything from the game.
What a night in front of 2⃣5⃣ 9⃣6⃣3⃣ of you at DHL Stadium. This place was rocking. #STOvSHA #iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/qfSlURT8IH
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 13, 2024
SCORES
DHL Stormers 31 - Tries: Hacjivah Dayimani, Leolin Zas 2 and Suleiman Hartzenberg; Conversions: Manie Libbok 4; Penalty: Manie Libbok. Sale Sharks 24 - Tries: Jonny Hill, Augustin Creevy and Sam Bedlow; Conversions: Robert du Preez 3; Penalty: Robert du Preez.