You would forgive the Cape Town faithful for high blood pressure this Easter weekend as their DHL Stormers side rose from the dead to beat Ulster 13-7 in a tense Vodacom United Rugby Championship arm wrestle on Saturday night.
There is something about contests between these two sides that automatically raises stress levels, especially as Ulster seem to outperform so many other sides in the URC in the way they raise the game against John Dobson’s side.
After so many close and sometimes controversial games before this, it wasn’t a surprise that it happened once again.
It took a late try five minutes from the end from Evan Roos, off the back of a lineout drive to get them ahead for the first time in the game, and as he normally does in these games, Manie Libbok drove the last nails into the coffin with a textbook conversion and penalty on fulltime to seal the victory.
What a win for the DHL Stormers in Cape Town 👏⛈
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 30, 2024
Steven Kitshoff's homecoming is spoiled by a late try as Dobbo's men take the W 🏉 #STOvULS pic.twitter.com/uNP1YOACxO
THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES
But it was a far cry from most of the game that the Northern Irish side dominated, and the Stormers were very lucky to only be 7-0 behind at the break.
Ulster’s dominance was so profound that they had almost 70 per cent possession and territory and the Stormers, when they got hold of the ball, were their own worst enemies, and counted handling error after handling error.
For a large part it felt as if the Stormers were trying too hard, overplaying their hand at times, and trying for the flashy passes instead of bucking down and grinding out their options on the scoreboard.
Handling errors came as 50-50 passes were thrown and while it looked sexy and impressive, those attacks only matter when they finish in a try.
It was almost too easy for Ulster at times to defend, as they targeted the players who were throwing the offloads and the Stormers struggled to get their balance right between sending the ball wide and buckling down and playing it more tactically.
SCRUM BATTLES
And Ulster, to their credit, were exceptionally good on attack. They flummoxed the Stormers, who held on for dear life and it was more of a surprise that the halftime scoreline was 7-0 given the sort of dominance they had in the first half.
Given the fact that the Stormers had just 33 per cent possession and 28 per cent territory, it was definitely a win for the home side.
The only try, for some unexplained reason, came as Nick Timoney latched onto the perfect pass to put him through a hole as he ran in untouched as the defence parted.
But after that, despite dominating all the play and having their fair share of chances, Ulster were unable to score in the first half.
The sidebar talking point, of course, was the battle between Springbok powerhouses Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe.
While they had only one head to head scrum, the Stormers scrum ensured Malherbe won the bragging rights, but that was probably more to do with the entire scrum than the individual battles.
The Kitshoff and Malherbe heavy-weight battle 🤩👇
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 30, 2024
📺 Stream Vodacom #URC live: https://t.co/bDeiretgWP pic.twitter.com/6h8IQukY0J
The scrums were a right battle indeed, as both sides won penalties and struggled to get ascendancy in the setpiece.
ROOS BREAKTHROUGH
In the second half the Stormers seemed to find their feet, but the handling errors still compounded their progress.
Time and again chances were squandered by a knock-on, a loose pass and their own unforced errors.
Then they finally made the breakthrough, and Roos swivelled and went over after previously falling short.
Composure when it matters. The try finally comes and it is Evan Roos from a maul to put us in front for the first time. Manie nails the touchline conversion.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) March 30, 2024
⛈️ 10-7 ⚪️ (74 mins)#STOvULS #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/V0Vxdj81fy
And with their noses in front they never looked back.
And survived to fight another day.
Scorers
DHL Stormers - try: Evan Roos. Conversion: Manie Libbok. Penalty: Libbok (2).
Ulster - try: Nick Timoney. Conversion: John Cooney