Stormers too good for plucky Benetton in Stellenbosch.

Stormers coach John Dobson wanted intensity as his team searched for the momentum they need as they head now into the play-off stage, with a quarterfinal set for DHL Stadium two weeks from now, and it he wouldn’t have been happy with how his team started.

They trailed 5-10 shortly before halftime after a poor and sloppy first half in which Benetton succeeded with their ploy of slowing down the game. Certainly the boisterous crowd of more than 12 000 at the atmospheric Stellenbosch University home ground didn’t have too much to get excited about for the first 30 minutes or more, with the game punctuated by frequent and lengthy stoppages.

However, on the stroke of halftime the host elicited some local cheer as they capitalised on a series of attacking lineouts by sending Willie Enelbrecht in off a driving maul that enabled Manie Libbok to take the lead for his team at 12-10. Then in the second minute of the second half it was Engelbrecht again who went over, this time off an attack that had started with lock Marvin Orie bursting clear from near the halfway line.

Kitshoff led from the front

Libbok didn’t nail the conversion but the Stormers were on their way and the bonus point and some daylight between the teams was clinched some 10 minutes later when skipper Steven Kitshoff broke off a driving maul to set up hooker JJ Kotze. Effectively the middle part of the game was decisive and it was only a question of how much the Stormers would win by after that.

Kitsoff, playing probably his second last home game for the Stormers before heading to Ulster at the end of the season, would have been deserving of the man of the match award as he was a consistent presence in carrying the ball and getting his team go forward as well as featuring as the breakdown turnover kingpin in the absence of regular openside flank Deon Fourie.

Injury concerns mar the night out

Let it be said that Fourie continues to be missed by the Stormers at the breakdowns so it is good news for them that the Springbok will be back for the quarterfinal. On the negative side of the balance sheet though lock Ruben van Heerden and then his replacement Ernst van Rhyn both came off in the first half with what looked like leg injuries. The Stormers can ill afford a problem at lock going into the playoffs.

Neither will they want to countenance an injury on the wing, where they are eager to welcome Leolin Zas back into the fold, particularly after Suleiman Hartzenberg appeared to sustain a potentially season ending leg injury in the Western Province Currie Cup game against the Pumas earlier in the afternoon. Well, the news isn’t good there either, as Seabelo Senatla had to be stretchered from the field 10 minutes from the end after a mid-air collision.

Those injury concerns should be Dobson’s major concerns after a performance that to be honest wasn’t as impressive as he might have hoped for but nonetheless good enough to ensure the five log points were netted that put Ulster under pressure to beat Edinburgh in Belfast later in the evening in order to hold onto their second place.

Sloppy first half

The Stormers can certainly ill afford to repeat their sloppiness of the first half against the better team they will get to face in the quarterfinal two weeks hence, with the identity of that team to be determined over the following day and depending on both where the Stormers end up and the final positioning of the teams currently placed fifth to eighth.

Their struggle in the first half wasn’t helped by the yellow card shown to Evan Roos in his comeback game for what looked from the vantage point of the Danie Craven Stadium press box on the other side of the field as a hand in the face.

Benetton, like they did against the Cell C Sharks the previous week, had most of the possession and territory in the early minutes, with flyhalf Tomas Abornoz putting them into a 3-0 lead with the second penalty his team was awarded in the space of the first four minutes. The Stormers were struggling to get their hands on the ball and their best early attack was a counter from deep after Libbok missed touch with a penalty and they punished the Italian team’s kick back.

They didn’t score from that but from a subsequent penalty they put together an extended multi-phase attack that eventually saw wing Angelo Davids go over from a cross kick from Libbok. The flyhalf didn’t have a great night from the kicking tee until he slotted a difficult conversion from the touchline in the second half, and missed his first conversion attempt, so when the Stormers’ sloppiness at an attacking breakdown was punished by a Benetton breakout that saw pacy flanker Alessandro Izeko go over, and the try was converted, the visitors were into a five point lead. Which remained the case until halftime.

After getting the bit between their teeth and opening up a gap the Stormers scored further tries to fullback Clayton Blommetjies and replacement loose-forward Marcel Theunissen to power ahead but they blotted their copy book slightly by conceding a try to flanker Manuel Zuliani and then a penalty try that prevented the one-sided score that was threatening.

Still, it was job done after the two defeats to Exeter Chiefs and Munster, and they did get a feel of a trophy when they lifted the South African Shield to the cheers of their fans immediately after the game. But their chances of doing that again with the main trophy a few weeks from now will require an improvement on what they produced in this game.

???️⛈️ The top SA team in the @Vodacom #URC again. We couldn’t have done it without the unbelievable support of the Faithful. #iamastormer #dhldelivers #UnitedWeRise pic.twitter.com/Vck1yEpRJ7

— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) April 21, 2023

SCORES

DHL Stormers 38 – Tries: Angelo Davids, Willie Engelbrecht 2, JJ Kotze, Clayton Blommetjies and Marcel Theunissen;

Conversions: Manie Libbok 4. Benneton 22 –

Tries: Alessandro Izeko and Manuel Zuliani, Conversion: Tomas Albornoz; Penalty try; Penalty: Tomas Albornoz.