A brilliant first half enabled the Emirates Lions to reignite their quest for a top eight or even top four spot on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log with a 30-23 win over the DHL Stormers at a wet Emirates Airlines Park on Saturday.
Just as was the case the week before, the Stormers found themselves with something to gain from the last kick of the game.
But unlike against the Vodacom Bulls at DHL Stadium the week before, this time it was for the bonus point that would accrue for a defeat by seven points or loss.
Against the Bulls, it was a kick to win the game that Clayton Blommetjies missed, this time Jurie Matthee managed to secure the solitary point on offer and time will tell how significant that point might be.
The Stormers never looked like coming within seven points of the winners during a first half where they were outplayed once the Lions started to exploit the same defensive weaknesses in the wide channels that were exposed by the Bulls in Cape Town.
The Lions also managed to do what they would have set out to as their primary requisite, which was to win the battle at the contact areas, and ultimately that will explain one of the weirdest aspects of this game, which is that if you look at the stats from the game you will note that the Stormers enjoyed 67 per cent of the possession and 72 per cent territory and yet still lost the game and were well behind for most of it.
REPEAT OF 2021 NIGHTMARE FOR STORMERS
In that sense, it was in many ways a repeat of the game the Stormers famously lost to the Lions in Cape Town in December 2021, which up until last week’s loss to the Bulls was their only loss in a URC derby at their home ground.
The Stormers couldn’t protect their possession, which made the Lions dangerous in transition play, and they also made too many handling errors on attack.
Almost the exact replica of what happened three and a bit years ago.
There were 18 visits to the Lions 22 by the Stormers against just six by the Lions, and the Stormers also had 14 penalties awarded in their favour to just six against them.
Where the Lions were better though, apart from the breakdown, was in their determined all-round defensive effort, as well as their ability to strike with clinical precision out wide from turnover ball.
And here no-one was more influential for the Lions than their fullback Quan Horn, who managed to break through the Stormers’ first line of defence almost every time he got the ball.
Horn was also a big influence on defence, and apart from some good work on the cover and kicking from defensive positions, was responsible for a crucial breakdown turnover.
VAN WYK ALSO SHONE
Not far behind him was outside centre Henco van Wyk, who showed what the Lions were missing when he was out injured and also sounded a warning that he should not be discounted in the race for Springbok honours in players in his position.
It was the Lions’ all-round commitment and passion that shone through though on a bleak and grey highveld afternoon.
And they showed that commitment in spades in the first 10 minutes, when the Stormers had almost all the ball and all the territory and on several occasions the likes of Wandisile Simelane, who looked amped playing against his old team, slipped through half gaps and created dangerous situations only to be thwarted by the Lions’ cover defence.
The Stormers’ defence by contrast was woeful.
Simelane is a dynamic attacking player but he has never quite erased the question marks over his defensive ability that kept him from ever becoming a first choice as he was expected to be when he played first for the Lions and then the Bulls.
With Gianni Lombard not quite managing the distance needed when kicking for exit, the Lions were pinned in their own half, and let it be said that this wasn’t a game where the Stormers misfired in the lineouts.
They were spot on throughout the game, while although they never dominated the Lions in the scrums, they didn’t relive the ignominy of going backwards in that phase like they did seven days earlier.
The Stormers could have gone up 3-0 after nine minutes but instead elected to kick a kickable penalty into the corner where good maul defence saved the Lions.
Scrumhalf Morne van den Bergh finally got the exiting right when he chose to kick and from there the Lions launched their first proper attack of the game which demanded a try saving tackle from Warrick Gelant.
LIONS CAPITALISED ON YELLOW CARD
The tackle was legal but Gelant turned his back to the oncoming Lions in exiting the loose scrum and was rightly yellow carded.
Lombard kicked the resulting penalty and Matthee levelled the scores with a kick of his own in the 17th minute, but that was just the cue for the Lions to properly capitalise on their one-man advantage.
It was fullback Horn who drifted wide and then through the Stormers outside centre off a good Lombard pass and Van den Berg was up on his inside to complete the score and put the Lions 10-3 up with Lombard’s conversion.
🎓 Hoërskool Linden's graduate Morne van der Berg goes supersonic 💨
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) February 15, 2025
Quan Horn showcasing @Paarl_Boishaai skills 🔥@Vodacom #URC | #LIOvSTO | #OriginRound #GrassrootsToGreatness pic.twitter.com/YhrXyWwcwz
Horn was through the same gap again three minutes later to put Van Wyk in for his team’s second try.
😎 Henco van Wyk droppin' @HMonument game 😎
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) February 15, 2025
Quan Horn doin' @Paarl_Boishaai proud 🤝@Vodacom #URC | #LIOvSTO | #OriginRound #GrassrootsToGreatness pic.twitter.com/DTph7yRJUL
In the space of just three minutes it had gone from a 3-all game that the Stormers were getting the better of into a 17-3 lead for the Lions.
Another Matthee penalty reduced the deficit to 11 points but it was clear that the Stormers were the team carrying the ball into contact and not coming away with it and retaining it, while they had missed 10 tackles by the 30th minute.
Still, the Stormers looked to be stabilising matters as they headed to halftime, only for the Lions to strike again with their third try which again came through Stormers’ uncertainty in the wide channels, with Edwill van der Merwe kicking ahead and centre Marius Louw coming through to capitalise on the Stormers fumble to make it 24-6 at halftime.
It was a long way back for the Stormers and given the way they dominated most aspects of play in the second half, with a bit of luck they could have come back to score a famous victory rather than just secure what at the halfway point was an unlikely losing bonus point.
However, the Stormers, although they spent long periods camping on the Lions’ line, just weren’t efficient and clinical enough, while the Lions made their own like with their tigerish defence.
It took a moment of typical individual brilliance from Gelant for the Stormers to finally get a try on the board in the 44th minute, thus bringing seven points back for the Stormers, but almost immediately the Lions had another three through a Lombard penalty.
HANDLING MISTAKES MEANT THERE WAS NO WAY BACK
A further Lombard penalty put the Lions 17 points clear and from then on it was pretty much a case of the Stormers hammering away for the try and the Lions defending and forcing the Stormers into making too many handling errors.
The Stormers finally got their second try when No 8 Evan Roos, who carried well all night, took an inside pass from Ben Loader on the line to score a try that was converted.
A move that had to have been perfected from his days at @Paarl_Boishaai, right?
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) February 15, 2025
✂️ Evan Roos cuts through for DHL @THESTORMERS to dot down.@vodacom #URC | #LIOvSTO | #OriginRound #GrassrootsToGreatness pic.twitter.com/aZO0UzKyc1
That made it a 10 point game with eight minutes to go and there was just the whiff of a chance for the Stormers but the Lions continued to frustrate them both with their tackling and their play at the breakdown and it can be seen as a win for them that when they were presented with their final penalty, the Stormers elected to kick for posts rather than set up the attacking lineout.
The kick took the Stormers up to ninth on the log from 11th, so it was an important moment, with both the Stormers and Lions having been helped in their quest for the top eight by Edinburgh’s unexpected home defeat to Zebre overnight.
The Lions though are sitting far prettier as they are now on 23 points, one behind the Stormers but with two games in hand on them and the likes of Edinburgh.
SCORES
Emirates Lions 30 - Tries: Morne van den Berg, Henco van Wyk and Marius Louw; Conversions: Gianni Lombard 3; Penalties: Gianni Lombard 3.
DHL Stormers 21 - Tries: Warrick Gelant and Evan Roos; Conversions: Jurie Matthee 2; Penalties: Jurie Matthee 2.