The number 13 is considered an unlucky number but it obviously isn’t for the DHL Stormers, who on Saturday went through that mark in consecutive victories as they triumphed 34-18 over Edinburgh in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at DHL Stadium on Saturday.
As they did at Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch against Connacht the weekend before, the Stormers scored their fourth try off the last move of the game to clinch the bonus point that leaves the URC champions with full points after two games.
Wing Suileman Hartzenberg, who’d earlier scored an intercept try that effectively ended the Edinburgh challenge, was the man to cross in the right corner as the Cape faithful celebrated an ultimately comfortable win.
It didn’t always look like being that way, however, as it was a game of two halves, with the Stormers having to soak up massive pressure in the first half, where they came a distant second both in terms of the territory battle and the wrestle for possession.
Full marks though to their defensive effort, who succeeded in making Edinburgh look decidedly laboured at times, with much of their attacking play reminding one of the title of a Shakespeare play, Much Ado about Nothing.
Edinburgh did though manage to eke out a 10-0 lead when prop Pierre Schoeman finally drove over the line for his team’s first try to add to an early Blair Kinghorn penalty.
But it did take 29 minutes for Edinburgh to breach the dam wall, despite their dominance of possession and the constant pressure they exerted, and perhaps that effort to break down the tigerish and well organised Stormers defence just took too much out of them.
For that try was really the last shot that the Scottish visitors fired until Dave Cherry dotted down with four minutes to go off a driving maul against a Stormers pack that had just been reduced to seven men by the red carding of reserve prop Sazi Sandi for a dangerous tackle.
The missed conversion meant that the Edinburgh were still nine points adrift and couldn’t win, and instead it was the 14-man Stormers who had the last say in the game with Hartzenberg’s try.
The Stormers got into the game almost immediately after Schoeman’s try, getting their first proper attack together as they forayed into the Edinburgh half for almost the first time in the game.
INTERCEPT TRY
Angelo Davids nearly went over under the posts but was held up by illegal play, with the crowd baying for a yellow card. Instead referee Frank Murphy just awarded a penalty while yellow carding Edinburgh hooker Stuart McInally.
The Stormers set up an attacking lineout on the stroke of halftime from the successive penalties that suddenly started coming their way after earlier it had been them that were constantly penalised.
Off the last move of the half, the hosts launched a driving maul from which Deon Fourie broke off to score a try that was converted by Manie Libbok to make it a three point game (10-7 to Edinburgh) at halftime.
Considering the pressure the Stormers had been under, that was a win for them, and in many ways it felt like a repeat of the URC final the Stormers played here against the Vodacom Bulls a few months ago. In the sense that suddenly it felt like the Stormers had all the momentum and Edinburgh might just be a spent force.
Libbok had earlier been carded for the Stormers, but in the period immediately after halftime it was the visitors who were a man down and the Stormers capitalised by playing some confident attacking rugby that eventually saw Joseph Dweba over for his debut try off a driving maul.
After having had so little of the game, the Stormers were suddenly ahead 14-10, and it became 17-10 when Libbok nailed a long range penalty in the 48th minute.
The Stormers looked like they were taking control, but were held up in the 50th minute when Evan Roos was yellow carded for manhandling an Edinburgh player by the neck. Kinghorn kicked the resultant penalty, and it was a four point game again.
The Stormers retained their composure and also the control they lost in the first half though even without Roos, and when the No 8 came back on Libbok kicked another penalty to get his team seven points clear with 16 minutes to go.
The Edinburgh had their fair share of attacking opportunities but somehow they always looked laboured in putting their running and passing game together, and when Hartzenberg intercepted near his own 10 metre line to run 60 minutes to score it put them into a 14 point lead that Edinburgh were always unlikely to eat with 12 minutes to go given the dominance of the Stormers defence.
The Stormers now head on an overseas tour that will start with a clash with Zebre Parma in Parma next weekend.
SCORES:
DHL Stormers 34 - Tries: Deon Fourie, Joseph Dweba and Suileman Hartzenberg 2; Conversions: Manie Libbok 4; Penalties: Manie Libbok 2.
Edinburgh 18 - Tries: Pierre Schoeman and Dave Cherry, Conversion: Blair Kinghorn; Penalties: Blair Kinghorn 2.