Centre Ruhan Nel scored a try off the last move of the game to clinch the DHL Stormers an exciting 26-21 win over the Scarlets in Llanelli on Saturday that seals their South African conference triumph and secures their home ground advantage in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinals.
The Nel try was the fourth for the Stormers so it also secured them the try-scoring bonus point that lifts them to second on the overall log, and they will now await the result of the final game between Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin to see if they retain that position as they head into the playoffs.
The Stormers have shown remarkable resilience and determination throughout the season as they have punched above their weight to win a Shield trophy no-one would have tipped them win at the start of the season, and this was a game where they showed all the qualities that have steered them to 12 wins and 61 points on the final log.
The Stormers did start as favourites to win the game at Parc Y Scarlets but sometimes it is easy to forget they are a young team just starting on their journey.
That might account for a nervy start that saw the fired up home side, who were playing for the Welsh Shield and qualification into the European Champions Cup, open up a 16-7 early lead.
The Stormers struggled with their discipline early in the game, but it has to be said that this was another of those matches where the 50/50 calls appeared to go the home team’s way.
It was particularly evident in the second half, but even in the first 40 minutes Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff appeared to be continually scratching his head at some of the calls that went against his team.
That said, the Stormers didn’t help themselves with some nervy play, particularly from the halfbacks. Manie Libbok was good later in the game but the flyhalf made errors in the first half that stymied his team’s attempts to take control.
Understandably given that he has not played URC rugby since December and has not played for the Stormers in that time, scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer, on loan to the Stormers from Griquas for just this game, was nervy too, and he knocked on an early ball at the back of a scrum in a very good position for the Stormers.
The Scarlets took the lead after four minutes with a Sam Costello penalty and it wasn’t much after that that the Scarlets put together a well planned training ground move from inside their own half as Gareth Davies lofted a kick over the Stormers’ rush defence and Jonny Williams was set free for a run half the length of the field to score.
The conversion made it 10-0 after seven minutes and the worst possible scenario was unfolding for the Stormers as the Scarlets brought their crowd into the game.
GOOD WITH BALL IN HAND
However, the Stormers always looked very good and dominant when they had ball in hand, and they did well to settle and then get the momentum for their first try.
It was started by a half break from Damian Willemse inside his own half and then carried on by the pacy looseforward Hacjivah Dayimani.
The flanker had just the modicum of space needed outside him to send Leolin Zas in for the try.
While that 13th-minute try might have settled nerves, it was still the Scarlets who gave better than they got up to around the half hour mark.
The Stormers’ errors were punished by Costello, as the hosts added two more penalties to go ahead 16-7 after 27 minutes.
The Stormers came back well at the Scarlets in the second half, but in the first half it remained their Achilles heel, with some skew throws and general untidy play in that phase.
Where the Scarlets might have particularly surprised the Stormers early on though was in the set scrum, where there was little to choose between the two units in the first half hour.
SCRUM PENALTY CHANGED MOMENTUM OF GAME
When the Stormers did finally put a massive dominant scrum together though they forced the first scrum penalty of the match that signalled a shift of momentum.
The Stormers applied all the pressure in the last minutes of the half and although the Scarlets resisted well, the visitors were finally rewarded for their patience when No8 Evan Roos, who turned in a man of the match performance, forced his way over near the posts.
Libbok’s conversion made it 16-14 a minute before the break and that was the way the score stayed until the whistle.
It was clear the momentum had shifted and the Stormers settled their nerves further when Nel went through a gap to score less than two minutes into the second half.
Libbok’s conversion made it 21-16, the first time they were ahead in the game, and it looked like the Cape team was taking control.
The daylight anticipated on the scoreboard did not materialise, however, with the Stormers struggling to come to terms with the refereeing while the Scarlets, a team like the Stormers always eager to attack with ball in hand, raised their game and became more confident the longer it went without the Stormers adding to their score.
YELLOW CARD
What looked like it could be a damaging shift against the Stormers came in the 59th minute when flanker Deon Fourie was yellow carded for a high tackle.
Having the Stormers down to 14 men seemed to energise the hosts, but they struggled to break down the Stormers’ physical and abrasive defensive system.
Indeed, the Stormers survived the 10 minutes that Fourie was off the field without conceding any points, and it was three minutes after the Stormers went back to 15 men with the arrival on the field of replacement Nama Xaba, that the Scarlets finally found space out wide after a series of drives at the Stormers line that wing Ryan Conbeer needed to dot down.
The try was scored in the corner though, and the Scarlets had taken Sam Costello off and also lost replacement flyhalf Rhys Patchell to injury, so it was a tall order for Liam Williams, playing his last game for Scarlets before moving to Cardiff next season, to convert it.
DRAW WOULD HAVE WON SHIELD
So 21-all it remained and with eight minutes to go the Stormers might not have been quite sure how to play it. For the two points for a draw would have been enough to pip the Vodacom Bulls to the South African Shield title.
The two sides would have ended with the same number of log points, but the Stormers would have gone through by virtue of their superior points difference.
The win was infinitely more preferable for the Stormers in terms of it securing a certain top three, if not top two finish, however, and full marks to the Stormers for the composure they showed in the last multiphase attack that sent Nel in for his second try and the score that set the seal on an outstanding league phase of the season for the Stormers.
Munster will need to beat Leinster by a bonus point to knock the Stormers off their second position, which would mean a quarterfinal meeting with one of the two Scottish teams in Cape Town, and at worst they will finish third.
Scores
DHL Stormers 26 - Tries: Leolin Zas, Evan Roos, Ruhan Nel 2; Conversions: Manie Libbok 3.
Scarlets 21 - Tries: Jonny Williams and Ryan Conbeer; Conversion: Sam Costello; Penalties: Sam Costello 3