It is unfortunately a fact of the Investec Champions Cup pool stages that the trend of sending understrength teams to cross hemisphere venues leads to some mental debate over what it all means, but the DHL Stormers should be happy enough with their 49-12 win over Bristol Bears.
Note that qualification, happy enough, for frankly once Bristol coach Pat Lam had confirmed he was going understrength with what he described as the youngest Bears team he has ever selected, then frankly a 30 point win when playing at their home ground of DHL Stadium became a base minimum requirement for the hosts.
They exceeded that, they won by 37, but was that a margin to send the Cape fans into a state of euphoria? Certainly against Bristol that looks a great result, for after all the Bears won 61-49 in Pretoria last year. But this was a very different Bristol team, and surprise, surprise, they were never really going to be at the races against a completely dominant Stormers scrum.
The DHL Stormers make a winning start to the #InvestecChampionsCup 🌩️🏉 #SSRugby https://t.co/UbjjYUMeDX
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 17, 2026
A dominant Stormers scrum let it be said that had a completely changed up front row from the side that won 39-22 against the Hollywoodbets Sharks the previous week. If anything, the starting front row of Vernon Matongo, JJ Kotze and Sazi Sandi was even more dominant in the scrums than the Springbok laden one that came on later on, when there were some technical issues at scrum time that halted some momentum.
But the Stormers also won that comfortably on a day where for a time they were reduced to 13 men, and played more than 26 minutes with at least a man down. That followed the red card to starting hooker Kotze, who clashed heads in defending the Stormers line. There wasn’t malice but it was clumsy and it was the right call to give him a 20 minute red card.
The later yellow card to Leolin Zas was much more debatable, and frankly it looked like the Bristol player drove into the upright Zas, but such is the ass that is the laws of modern rugby. Regardless, maybe it aided the Stormers to have a few curve balls thrown at them, as it might have been way too one-sided had that not been the case.
It is customary for the Stormers to dominate the scrums, and against a team that had youngsters in reserve on the bench, the fact the hosts were fielding in Sazi Sandi probably the fourth-ranked Stormers tighthead meant little. It doesn’t seem to matter who starts for the Stormers, they tend to dominate at scrum time, and Sandi is actually an underrated tighthead who is one of the more explosive scrummers in the business.
The Stormers scored early tries to the two wings, first man of the match Seabelo Senatla, and then Leolin Zas. The latter ended with a brace, but the first of those was courtesy of an excellent assist in the form of an offload on the Bristol line from Senatla, who had done all the work.
There's no substitute for pace ⚫⚡ Seabelo Senatla slices through Bristol Bears' defence 🙌 📺 Stream #InvestecChampionsCup on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw https://t.co/zzBWz9KYnB
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 17, 2026
Bristol then struck back with a period where they camped in the Stormers territory, and indeed in the end they did shade both the territory and possession stats. At least according to the stats, for it didn’t feel like that watching it.
They got a try to Joe Owens before the Stormers went 21-7 ahead, which was the halftime score, through a try to Jonny Roche, the first of a brace. The Kotze red card came after that, and then the yellow to Zas, and an intercept try to Cobus Reinach was cancelled off.
Bristol, playing against 13 men, brought the scores back to a seven point margin with a try to their replacement scrumhalf Sol Moody, but once the Stormers were back at full complement it was always going to be a one-horse race and in the end the margin of victory will have prevented Bristol from taking the heart from their performance that for much of the game they threatened to do.
How good is this pass by Haashim Pead? 🎯 Gelant goes over for the bonus point try 🌩️ #SSRugby | #InvestecChampionsCup https://t.co/WjP151qRmE
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 17, 2026
The big goal of the Stormers, given that their biggest rivals in their pool, Bordeaux-Begles and Gloucester, drew in their game the night before, was to get the try scoring bonus point for scoring more than three than their opponents. They managed it fairly late, yet there was always some inevitability about it. Target reached.
Scores
DHL Stormers 49 - Tries: Seabelo Senatla, Leolin Zas 2, Jonathan Roche 2, Andre-Hugo Venter and Warrick Gelant; Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 7.
Bristol Bears 12 - Tries: Joe Owens and Sol Moody; Conversion: Sam Worsley.