The DHL Stormers extended their winning run at DHL Stadium to 21 matches but were mightily relieved to have got home 29-23 against the Cell C Sharks in a game they dominated yet seemed quite determined towards the end to lose.
The Stormers had 13 men on the field when they forced a penalty off the last scrum of the game to make it safe, with Manie Libbok stepping up to kick three points that were hardly needed.
Indeed, they had a disadvantage of two for the last seven minutes, with Seabelo Senatla joining Sazi Sandi in the bin for attempting a trip on Sharks scrumhalf Grant Williams in the brilliant run through the Stormers defence that brought the Durbanites to within three points of what would have been a highly bizarre win.
Bizarre because of the yawning chasm there appeared to be between the teams for most of the way.
The Stormers scored four tries and were full value for their 26-6 lead after 55 minutes, which was when Clayton Blommetjies dotted down after the Sharks had failed to dot down a Manie Libbok kick into their in-goal area.
They’d missed several scoring opportunities too, and it seemed at that point they might be on their way to the kind of big win they scored in Durban four weeks ago.
First time out in the blue and white at DHL Stadium for Ruben van Heerden and he was blown away by the support. #STOvSHA #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/wdik7bH06O
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) March 4, 2023
LETTING THE SHARKS BACK IN
But the Sharks, who had hardly looked threatening up to that point, then scored a good try that came about courtesy of good aerial skills from Boeta Chamberlain.
Still, the Stormers were only a pass away from scoring again and re-establishing their buffer, but then Suleiman Hartzenberg, on as a replacement, dropped a kick and from the resultant scrum the Sharks forced a penalty.
From the lineout they set up with skipper Curwin Bosch’s kick, the burly Rohan Janse van Rensburg drove over and suddenly, with Bosch’s conversion kick, it was an eight point game with 13 minutes to go.
Again the Stormers went onto the attack. Again they weren’t able to finish off. And again the Sharks survived.
A penalty that saw Sandi yellow carded gave them the field position from which Williams, who said during the week he was so looking forward to playing in front of his family on his return to the region where he was schooled, went over for his brilliant solo try.
??? He took the gap like it was a Formula E race. #STOvSHA #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/pNBpWN51Dv
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) March 4, 2023
The Sharks, with a 15 to 13 man advantage, might have made more of a challenge for the win in those final minutes had it not been for their really dumb rugby.
When you are two men up, you don’t kick for touch, like reserve scrumhalf Cameron Wright did. And then skipper Bosch did the same thing.
MAUL HELD IT TOGETHER FOR STORMERS AT THE END
The Stormers’ maul had been strong all afternoon and that was what helped them through those final minutes, which were spent where they needed to be spent when you are two men down and three points up.
In other words, deep in the Sharks’ half. And it was from the scrum they were awarded on the line in the final minute after a botched Sharks attempt to run from deep that the Stormers scrum unit forced the penalty that ensured the game was safe.
It was a bizarre game in many ways, not least for how the Stormers wasted opportunities, and even before the Sharks' fightback the Stormers coach John Dobson would have felt it was one of his team’s worst performances of the season.
In the first 15 minutes the Sharks were passive but the Stormers were too sloppy to take advantage effectively.
The Sharks were the first to score points through a Bosch penalty in the seventh minute, and it needed a good Sacha Mngomezulu try to settle the Stormers and put them into a 5-3 lead.
Bosch kicked another penalty to make it 6-5 for the visitors but then came a gift of a try to the Stormers, with a poor Grant Williams high kick drifting backwards to be grabbed by the unmarked Stormers blindside flank Ben-Jason Dixon.
That made it 12-6 and then it was 19-6 in the 31st minute as a deft switch between Libbok and Mngomezulu, who was playing inside centre due to a late injury to Dan du Plessis, sent in fullback Blommetjies.
WASTED CHANCES
That was also the halftime score. The Stormers again had several chances to finish again but were too over-elaborate, with the bonus point try eventually coming courtesy of the Sharks’ failure to ground a kick ahead.
It required some TMO deliberation, and eventually the stadium announcer said it was Harzenberg who dotted down. But it was Blommetjies who picked up and placed the ball after it was knocked back so surely it was his second try.
After that the Stormers were presented with a penalty that would have made the gap 23 points. They already had the try- scoring bonus point so they should have kicked it.
That nearly came back to bite them, though they came tantalisingly close to dotting down the maul try which would have justified the decision. That decision and that miss nearly came back to bite them later.
Not that it matters to the Stormers, all they will care about is that they got the five points that now puts them within two log points of making absolutely certain of the South African Shield and they also stretched their lead in second place over third- placed Ulster back to 10 points, although Ulster were set to play later on Saturday evening.
For the Sharks they will lament not being able to finish off what appeared to be a Stormers fourth quarter gift to them not dissimilar to the one they presented the Stormers with in Durban last January, when a certain Sharks win was turned into a draw.
Yet if you were to be brutally honest, this was far from the best Stormers performance and the Sharks were abjectly poor.
Never mind missing out on the win, they were lucky to get the consolation bonus point.
Scores
DHL Stormers 29 - Tries: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Clayton Blommetjies 2 and Ben-Jason Dixon. Conversions: Manie Libbok 3; Penalty: Manie Libbok.
Cell C Sharks 23 - Tries: Yaw Penxe, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Grant Williams; Conversion: Curwin Bosch; Penalties: Curwin Bosch 2.