Connacht profit from Stormers' defensive lapses on an emotional day in Cape Town
by Craig Taylor · KickOffIt was an emotional day in Cape Town as Connacht profited from the Stormers’ defensive lapses to win their United Rugby Championship clash 33-24 on Saturday.
The match, played in remembrance of Stormers manager, Chippie Solomon, who died last Saturday, started with his family bringing the match ball onto the field, and there weren’t many dry eyes in the house after that.
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A minute of applause followed before the match kicked off in rainy conditions.
With Connacht on the attack in the opening minutes, the Stormers lost flank Deon Fourie to a yellow card for head-on-head contact in the fifth minute.
Connacht profited immediately when flanker Shamus Hurley-Langton crashed over in the left-hand corner despite the attentions of three Stormers defenders.
Fullback Sam Gilbert converted to give the visitors an early 7-0 lead.
The Stormers weren’t flustered, however, and hit back in the 13th minute. Despite losing some field position while moving through the phases, a gap eventually opened, and it was Evan Roos who raced away for his 10th try of the season.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted to bring the scores level at 7-7.
The rest of the half was fairly scrappy, which, considering the rainy conditions, was to be expected as both sides had opportunities on attack.
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The Stormers, however, did go into the break 10-7 up when Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted a scrum penalty on the stroke of half-time.
The second half couldn’t have started any better for the home side as a brilliant lineout variation saw them make metres into the Connacht 22-metre area.
From that, prop Ntuthuko Mchunu forced his way over the line and, with Feinberg-Mngomezulu converting, the Stormers extended their lead to 17-7 in the 47th minute.
Connacht were next to score when they struck from close in with replacement Paul Boyle forcing his way over for a converted score to cut the home side’s lead to 17-14.
The Stormers had several opportunities on attack but couldn’t convert field position until the 62nd minute when the mercurial Feinberg-Mngomezulu showed his undoubted class once again.
Taking the ball around 10 metres out, the flyhalf beat several defenders on his way to the line, converting his own try to give the Stormers a 24-14 lead.
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But the Stormers made a hash of the restart, allowing Connacht to work space on the right to send John Devine into the corner.
While the conversion was missed, the visitors had cut the Stormers' lead to 24-19 with 15 minutes left.
Connacht then hit the lead in the 70th minute when Ben Murphy raced over for a converted try after Shayne Bolton kicked ahead, regathered, and found Murphy on his inside.
Connacht rounded off the match when, with the Stormers looking for a score to win the game, Sean Naughton grabbed an intercept to race away and score.
Gilbert added the conversion to give Connacht a well-deserved win on the day.
Scorers
Stormers 24 (10)
Tries: Evan Roos, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (3)
Penalties: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Connacht 33 (7)
Tries: Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle, John Devine, Ben Murphy, Sean Naughton
Conversions: Sam Gilbert (3), Sean Naughton
Penalties: None