Stormers bounce back from Ospreys defeat as Leinster’s costly tour ends in heavy loss

Manie LIBBOK of DHL Stormers with the ball during the United Rugby Championship Round 2 match between Munster Rugby and DHL Stormers at Thomond Park in Limerick, Ireland on October 2, 2021 (Photo by Andrew SURMA/ SIPA USA).

The Stormers bounced back from last week’s shock United Rugby Championship loss to the Ospreys by handing Leinster a heavy 42-12 defeat in Cape Town on Saturday.

John Dobson’s side’s maximum hauls sees them end the round in fifth place while Leinster have relinquished top spot to Glasgow after back-to-back losses in South Africa.

The Warriors’ bonus-point victory over Zebre Parma earlier in the day sees the Scottish side hold a four-point advantage at the summit with just three rounds remaining.

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The dominant South Africans earned a bonus-point win after tries from Ben Loader, Samaan Moerat, Herschel Jantjies, Willie Engelbrecht and Warrick Gelant, with fly-half Manie Libbok converting four and adding three penalties for a personal haul of 17 points.

Max Deegan and Rob Russell went over for tries for Leinster with Sam Prendergast adding a conversion.

After an error-strewn opening four minutes, it was the Stormers who were we first to take advantage when a loose pass from Cormac Foley was seized upon by Loader, who sprinted half the length of the field to touch down under the posts and Libbok sent over the simple conversion.

Libbok then extended the lead to 10-0 midway through the first half after Leinster were penalised for being offside at the ruck and another penalty 10 minutes before the interval stretched their advantage further.

Libbok added a third penalty before the Stormers’ dominance told as they scored their second try of the evening with the clock in the red as Moerat burrowed his way over from a penalty advantage and Libbok’s conversion made it 23-0 at the break.

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The Stormers picked up from where they left off immediately after the restart. Jantjies picked the ball up from a ruck and darted between some lacklustre Leinster cover tackling to run unopposed to the line.

But Leinster would not lie down and battled their way back into the game as Deegan powered his way over from close range following a penalty five metres out, before turning provider when he broke clear down the left and played an inside pass for Russell to slide over.

The Stormers secured the bonus point when replacement Engelbrecht burst through a weak tackle attempt from Henry McErlean to touch down and Gelant put the icing on the cake with a superb individual try.

The teams

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Brok Harris

Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Wandisile Simelane

Leinster: 15 Henry McErlean, 14 Liam Turner, 13 Ben Brownlee, 12 Charlie Ngatai, 11 Rob Russell, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Cormac Foley, 8 Max Deegan, 7 Scott Penny (c), 6 Rhys Ruddock, 5 Jason Jenkins, 4 Brian Deeny, 3 Michael Ala’alatoa, 2 John McKee, 1 Michael Milne

Replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Ed Byrne, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Conor O’Tighearnaigh, 20 Diarmuid Mangan, 21 Fintan Gunne, 22 Charlie Tector, 23 Martin Moloney

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Assistant Referees: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU), Christopher Allison (SARU)

TMO: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)