Rugby results: Heartbreak for Stormers, Bulls march on
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The Stormers suffered an agonising Champions Cup round of 16 defeat on Saturday, while the Bulls thrashed Lyon at Loftus Versfeld.
South Africa’s two leading franchises, the Bulls and Stormers, featured in the Champions Cup on Saturday – albeit with mixed results.
The Stormers took a 16-0 lead in the second half against La Rochelle, and looked on track for a stunning victory, but injuries then disrupted the momentum of the Cape team.
La Rochelle subsequently staged an impressive fight back to snatch the lead in the latter stages, but the Stormers gave themselves an opportunity to snatch a victory after the hooter when Suleiman Hartzenberg collected a cross-field kick to score. However, the conversion from Manie Libbok sailed wide.
“It was an impossible kick. In those winds, it was impossible,” coach John Dobson said after the match.
“What made me really proud, was how they tried to score that try. Damian [Willemse] could’ve scored in the corner, but tried to come in. A lot of teams would have just taken the try. We didn’t want to score a maul try, even though our maul looked reasonably promising.
“We were playing the champions, completely disrupted with injuries and we were worrying about where we are going to score. That maturity under that pressure.
“Every other team in the world is mauling it. We would normally maul it and ask Manie to kick it. That sort of composure and maturity was really cool.”
Heartbreak for Stormers, but no stopping Bulls
The Bulls were in unstoppable form as Embrose Papier and Sebastian de Klerk scored a brace of tries apiece to trounce Lyon 59-19
It was a victory that saw the Pretoria-based side progress to the last eight of the EPCR competition for the first time.
It was also a statement performance after the Bulls had suffered a heavy defeat at Leinster in the URC last week.
“We wanted a rebound and good teams are teams that after they get a performance like we did last week you make sure you back it up with a proper performance,” coach Jake White said.
“Some of those tries were outstanding… and over the years people have gone from seeing the Bulls being able to scrum and maul into the kind of rugby we saw [on Saturday].
“It’s obviously very pleasing to get a reaction like that, and pleasing that we can interchange the way that we play. We used the Highveld, we used the altitude and the surface we practise on as a bonus. Very happy to pull that win off.”
Other matches to note
Meanwhile, the Lions were eliminated from the Challenge Cup after suffering a defeat to Benetton in Treviso on Saturday night.
A strong fight back from the Cheetahs was also not enough in their Round of 16 clash as they went down to Clermont at the Stade Marcel-Michelin on Saturday.
The Sharks will be the final team in action on Sunday when they face Zebre at 4pm.
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