CHAMPIONS CUP
Leighton Koopman|Published
The Stormers started their Champions Cup campaign with a bonus point victory over Bristol Bears in Cape Town on Saturday, recording an emphatic seven-try 49-12 victory at DHL Stadium.
It was the second consecutive win for the ‘Men in Black’ as they backed up their commanding performance against the Sharks from a week ago. While there were some scintillating tries scored, especially the first one by winger Seabelo Senatla, a red card to hooker JJ Kotzé and a yellow to winger Leolin Zas put a slight blemish on the performance.
Despite playing with 14 players for 20 minutes and at a stage being down to 13 men, the Springbok-laden home side still had enough firepower to send the Bears back to England with no league points from the clash.
While the backline attacks were on fire, especially with the opening three tries, including Senatla’s, and the ones scored by Zas and inside centre Jonathan Roche, it’s the Stormers’ defence that deserve the plaudits. Countless times they halted attacks of the Bears in front of their try line with loose forward Siya Kolisi at the heart of some good defence. Locks JD Schickerling and Adré Smith also disrupted the lineouts of Bristol when they were on the attack.
Kotzé’s red card in his 22m area when they were defending a rolling maul put some extra pressure on the home team, but it was at the resulting lineout from the penalty that Kolisi stepped in to strip the ball from an attacker.
While the red card sharpened the defence of the Stormers, that Senatla try in the seventh minute of the game showed that the attack was going to thrive. He sliced through the defence, goose stepped his way around the last defender and outstripped him to dive over in the corner.
Some good attacking play by fullback Damian Willemse and Senatla led to the five-pointer for Zas. He scooped up a pop pass off the deck by his wing mate to go over untouched.
It took a second card, this time yellow to Zas for a high tackle, for the Bears to finally get points against the depleted home team in the second half. The yellow card came after an intercept score by scrumhalf Cobus Reinach was chalked off. The Stormers can feel aggrieved by the card after the tackler fell into Zas, but the TMO and referee still judged it to be dangerous.
However shortly after the maul try by the Bears, Roche went over for his second of the afternoon, scoring in the corner after picking up a high cross kick by flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to run in untouched. The young insider centre had another strong game.
The clash lost a bit of momentum when the Stormers rang the changes with substitutes, although they still enjoyed most of the possession, while their scramble defence kept Bristol at bay on a couple of occasions.
Tries by replacement back Warrick Gelant, No 16 André-Hugo Venter and Zas, dotting down his second, following sustained attacks, brought the bonus point after they went three scores ahead of Bristol. Feinberg-Mngomezulu had a flawless kicking performance off the tee when converting the five-pointers, slotting all and just missing one penalty attempt right before halftime.
Aside from the disciplinary issues, the Stormers’ handling also let them down a couple of times and they had some glaring knock-ons, like the one ball Willemse dropped with an open try-line in front of him. Sometimes they also kicked the ball away aimlessly.
But, those are small things that can be ironed out over the next couple of weeks. The scrums, rolling mauls, defence and attack looked sharp for most of the clash and the opening Champions Cup victory will be one to savour.
Points scorers
Stormers 49 (21): Tries: Seabelo Senatla, Leolin Zas (2), Jonathan Roche (2), Warrick Gelant, André-Hugo Venter. Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (7). Bristol Bears 12 (7): Tries: Joe Owen, Sol Moody. Conversion: Sam Worsley.