By Gavin Rich.
Munster did their fellow Irish province Ulster a huge favour as they ended the DHL Stormers’ long unbeaten run at their home ground with a tight 26-24 win on Saturday evening that may end the home team’s chances of finishing second on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log.
It was a gutsy and clinical performance from the visitors, and while it was their maul that set up a handy lead at one stage of the first half, it was arguably the way they resisted a strong period of Stormers pressure in the first 10 minutes of the second half that was the real turning point of the game.
The Stormers had come back strongly after being 12-0 down after 22 minutes to two superbly executed Munster driving maul tries to level the scores at 12-all at halftime and then they had a couple of opportunities to take the lead in the game for the first time straight after the restart.
The Cape team’s dominance at that point was underlined by them being awarded seven penalties in a row from the 30th minute through to eight minutes into the second half. One of those penalties the Stormers lined up from in front of the posts but Manie Libbok struck the posts, perhaps an indication that it just wasn’t going to be the Stormers’ day.
Libbok’s nightmare from the Tee
Libbok had a nightmare evening off the kicking tee in general, missing five of seven kicks at the posts, including another two penalties from fairly kickable positions, and two in the last five minutes, when the Stormers trailed by nine points and needed a three pointer to get back into the game with a chance of winning it.
As it turned out the Stormers, as they so often do, put it together quite superbly after the hooter in an extended attack that put Ruhan Nel in for a try beneath the posts. Alas, it was all too late to make a difference to the end result, but it did mean the Stormers got two bonus points out of the game – one for losing by less than seven and one for scoring four tries.
That may just make a difference on the final weekend, as Ulster hold onto second place by just one solitary point. However, while the Stormers should deal comfortably enough with Benetton in Stellenbosch in their final league game on Friday night, Ulster should be tipped to win at home against Edinburgh, and they have a superior points difference so the bonus point shouldn’t matter.
Sets up intriguing final round
Still, it does make for an intriguing final round, with the Stormers now being set the objective of winning by as big a margin as possible against Benetton just in case Ulster don’t get full points against Edinburgh.
It was the first home Stormers defeat since they lost at home here at the DHL Stadium to the Emirates Lions in December 2021, a sequence of more than 20 wins, and in one way there were similarities – the Stormers made more mistakes than their opponents, who were far more clinical, and the Stormers wasted scoring chances, not only from the boot of Libbok.
What Munster did well was disrupt the Stormers lineouts, particularly in the first half, with the two South Africans, RG Snyman and former Stormers player Jean Kleyn, doing yeoman work. And of course there was the driving maul, the first of which netted a try in the second minute which required quite a long deliberation from the TMO and was eventually awarded not on any evidence picked up on the replay but the fact that the onfield referee had made it an onfield try.
Then 20 minutes later Munster drove through to put in hooker Diarmuid Barron for the second try of the match. At the time the Stormers were down to 14 men after wing Seabelo was binned for a high tackle.
Didn’t capitalise on perion of control
Once restored to 15 the Stormers settled and slowly but surely began to look like they were taking control. Libbok might not have kicked well for posts but he was good in allround play and it was his clever kick that saw Munster carry the ball back. From the attacking scrum the Stormers played off penalty advantage and thanks to a magnificent offload from big lock Ruben van Heerden it was none other than Springbok tighthead Frans Malherbe who barrelled over for the try.
The Stormers spent the remaining 10 minutes of the half pretty much attacking the Munster line, and the visitors did well to repel the threat until, after the hooter, and after another attacking scrum that was called from a penalty, Nel went over for the first of his two tries to level the scores.
Then came that period of attrition where the Stormers did everything but score and Munster resisted so well, and when finally they won a turnover penalty you could almost sense that their failure to score then could end up costing the Stormers. They’ve done a lot of air miles recently and it was inevitable that they might be a little leaden-legged in the final part of the game.
And so it proved as they seemed to grow in confidence from that moment wing Shane Daly rounded off a great cross field sweep from the visitors in the 57th minute and the try was converted from the corner.
The Stormers responded with a driving maul try dotted down by Kitshoff with 15 minutes to go but Libbok could not kick the conversion that would have levelled matters. So when Gavin Coombes went over under the posts after a series of Munster attacks it felt like that was the game gone for the Stormers. It may not have been had Libbok kicked an easy penalty with five minutes to go, which might have meant the final try would have been the clincher. However, that is not really how it works, had the kick been landed the game might have been played out differently.
Ultimately, the Stormers might look at this one as one of those games that got away, an opportunity missed, but then if you delve into the memory bank it will be recalled that Ulster were denied second place by a few marginal calls last year.
Scores
Munster 26 – Tries: Diarmuid Barron 2, Shane Daly and Gavin Coombes; Conversions: Jack Crowley 2 and Ben Healy.
DHL Stormers 24 – Tries: Frans Malherbe, Ruhan Nel 2 and Steven Kitshoff; Conversions: Manie Libbok 2.