The DHL Stormers ensured that they have all but clinched their place in the Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 with one home game to come as they eased to a comprehensive 28-14 win over London Irish at the Gtech Community Stadium in London on Sunday.
The Stormers scored four tries to bag a full house of five log points, which together with their five from the first-round game against the same opponents in Cape Town, takes them to 10 from their three games.
That is five ahead of ninth-placed Sale Sharks, with the top eight from pool B advancing to the last 16. It is possible for the Sharks to match the Stormers on log points by winning with a bonus point next weekend, but it will require the Stormers to take nothing from their home game against Clermont-Auvergne. Plus the English side has an inferior points differential to overcome.
It wasn’t a great game of rugby, mostly because of the red card blight that is undermining the sport. This time there were two, both shown to players from London Irish, which meant that the hosts were down to 14 men from the 13th minute, when Ben Loader was dispatched for a dangerous tackle, and to 13 when Kieron Parker followed him for an overzealous cleanout two minutes into the second half.
Both calls were right according to the letter of the law, but again a game, as Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman put it in a television interview with the commentators during the match, was ruined as a contest. And the Stormers didn’t help the watchability of the match by appearing to take their foot off the accelerator when it was clear they had the game won, which was in the 46th minute when Angelo Davids crossed for the bonus point try to put the visitors 28-0 up.
Irish were awarded a penalty try in the 50th minute and crossed for a consolation try shortly before the end, but there was never any doubt about the result after the Hartzenberg score and the Stormers played like they knew it. They were too loose and it allowed Irish to live up to their reputation of, as Stormers coach John Dobson put it before the first-round clash, being the walking dead for their refusal to just throw in the towel.
It did look like the Stormers had extended the winning margin when Ruhan Nel crossed untouched off the second-last move of the game but he lost control of the ball just before it made contact with the ground, which kind of summed up the game. It is not the first time Nel has made that kind of mistake over the line so it is something he needs to be careful about.
The Stormers started strongly and did look like the better team before the first red card was shown. But it did follow a yellow to London Irish, so they were down to 13 men even for 10 minutes of the first half. If you look at that fine print, you realise the Stormers should really have won by more than they did in the end.
The Stormers were wasteful with their first scoring opportunity, with wing Davids knocking on after Nel had intercepted with a charge down, but they made up for it when the French referee awarded them a penalty try from their first driving maul opportunity near the Irish line.
That was in the 13th minute and it netted Irish their first yellow card, soon to be followed by Loader. The home team made a good fist of the fight, if you will excuse that expression, but the Stormers’ defence was excellent in the part of the game that it needed to be. It came as little surprise then when Nel intercepted again in the 30th minute and this time made sure of the score.
Manie Libbok had left the field after being on the receiving end of the tackle that saw Loader red-carded, which incidentally coincided with another wasted opportunity for the Stormers as Davids went over but Libbok’s final pass was rightly adjudged to be forward.
Libbok’s departure brought Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu onto the field as the replacement flyhalf and he took over the place-kicking duties and also put in the little grubber kick that sent in Sulieman Hartzenberg for the third Stormers try shortly before halftime.
The Stormers led 21-0 at the break and at that point, the match already looked won, with it becoming even more so once Parker was sent for an early shower and then the Stormers profited from a good bounce (for them) and Davids ended up crossing in the corner for Feinberg-Mngomezulu to convert. Most of what came after that was forgettable, at least from a Stormers point of view. London Irish might have had another try before they scored their second as they appeared to dot down on the line but the referee didn’t refer.
The win does break the Stormers’ sequence of defeats - three across the Champions Cup (Clermont) and the URC (Cardiff and Glasgow Warriors) - and they should be happy about that. Their place in the last 16 is pretty much assured so it is job done.
SCORES
DHL Stormers 28 - Tries: Ruhan Nel, Sulieman Hartzenberg and Angelo Davids; Penalty try; Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
London Irish 14 - Try: Danilo Fischetti, Conversion: Rory Jennings.