Report: Stormers breach Gtech fortress as they claim a bonus point victory in Brentford
London Irish fell to a 28-14 defeat at the hands of reigning United Rugby Championship winners, DHL Stormers, in the third round of the Heineken Champions Cup.
In a game dominated by the two red cards shown to London Irish, the DHL Stormers did enough to claim all the points on offer as they head back to Cape Town where they will face ASM Clermont Auvergne next week.
The DHL Stormers absorbed some early pressure before applying some of their own and it paid off when a strong maul was pulled down, resulting in a penalty try.
The backline looked to have scored a scintillating try shortly afterwards, but the last pass to Angelo Davids was called back for a forward pass.
Manie Libbok made that pass, but was then hit late and high by London Irish fullback Ben Loader, who was shown a red card.
Ruhan Nel made the initial linebreak for that effort and he was on the scoresheet before long, making a great read on defence to grab an intercept and race away.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu would combine with fellow South Africa under-20 talent Hartzenberg with a well-weighted grubber, finding the outside back who finished under contact and the former adding two more to his collection before the break.
That saw the DHL Stormers go into half-time with a 21-0 lead and needing just one try in the second half to secure the bonus point.
Working off the lineout, Irish conceded a penalty for a clearout within inches of the whitewash and half-time replacement Ciaran Parker was red carded, a frustrating sequence with Irish’s afternoon getting a lot more tricky.
Angelo Davids would touch down in the goal area after fellow back Dan du Plessis’ kicking moved his side up the park in broken field play, booting ahead for the winger to get his try.
Irish would get on the scoreboard from a catch-and-drive shove, Stormers conceding the game’s second penalty try after being unable to maintain a legal counter to the Exiles’ move.
In a tough afternoon in Brentford, the 13-man Exiles would try to play through the hands but knock-ons would unfortunately be symptomatic of their attempts to advance, often too being met with brutish line speed from the South Africans.
Irish saw the lion’s share of the remaining ball in the game, and made it count following Stormers not rolling away as Irish went to the corner once more.
The Stormers play Clermont in the Cape on Saturday whilst Irish travel to Montpellier.
The scorers:
For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Penalty try, Nel, Hartzenberg, Davids
Conversions: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3
For London Irish:
Tries: Penalty try, Fischetti
Conversions: Jennings
DHL Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Junior Pokomela, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Connor Evans, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Steven Kitshoff (captain).
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Simon Miller, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Willie Engelbrecht, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
London Irish: 15 Ben Loader, 14 Lucio Cinti, 13 Luca Morisi, 12 Benhard van Rensburg, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Rory Jennings, 9 Ben White, 1 Will Goodrick-Clarke, 2 Mike Willemse, 3 Lovejoy Chawatama, 4 Api Ratuniyarawa, 5 Rob Simmons, 6 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Tom Pearson, 8 Matt Rogerson (c)
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ciaran Parker, 19 Chunya Munga, 20 Josh Basham, 21 Chandler Cunningham-South, 22 Joe Powell, 23 Michael Dykes.
