Champions Cup result: Stormers second half show powers them past Clermont

A stunning second half show from the Stormers saw them power to an impressive 30-16 (halftime 3-6) bonus point win over Clermont in their Champions Cup clash at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.

After a tight first half dominated by defence that saw the visitors leading at the break, the second burst into life with the Stormers running in four tries to one in response from Clermont, as the home team secured their place in the last 16 of the competition and gave themselves a chance to host a playoff.

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The first half was an incredible exhibition of tackling from the visitors, as they superbly defended their territory throughout the half, making over a hundred tackles, while only missing a few.

The only points of the half came from the boot of the two flyhalves, with Stormers pivot Kade Wolhuter given the first chance to get points on the board with a long range shot in the 10^th minute, but with it from a tricky angle he watched as his kick just drifted wide.

This allowed Clermont flyhalf Anthony Belleau to put his side 6-0 up, with a penalty in the 14^th minute after Stormers hooker Jospeh Dweba drifted offside, and another in the 26^th with Dweba again punished for not rolling away at a ruck.

Wolhuter then finally got his side on the board with another long range kick from the halfway in the 37^th minute, but with it in front this time he easily stroked it through, leaving them three points behind at the break.

The second half started with the flyhalves called into action again, Wolhuter first levelling the scores and then Belleau putting Clermont back ahead after 46 minutes.

A minute later with the Stormers on attack in the Clermont half, replacement flyhalf Jean-Luc du Preez stabbed a grubber into the 22m, and with the ball bouncing over Belleau, he reached up and slapped the ball away, earning him a yellow card.

Exploded into action

It proved to be a costly 10 minutes in the bin as the Stormers exploded into action scoring three tries and 19 points in the period.

The first was from the resultant penalty being kicked to the corner, as the Stormers secured the lineout and set-up the maul, with replacement eighthman Evan Roos breaking off and powering his way over to score the converted try.

Their second came four minutes later as wing Suileman Hrtzenberg broke down the touchline and popped a superb offload to replacement scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies following up, for him to go over in the corner for an unconverted try.

The third came in the 56^th minute as Dweba popped a perfect inside pass to inside centre Dan du Plessis, who broke into the 22m, stepped the last defender and went over next to the uprights, with Du Preez’s extras giving the Stormers a 25-9 lead.

A poor long pass from Hartzenberg in the 60^th minute then gave Clermont a way back as wing Bautista Delguy intercepted and sprinted away to score a converted try.

But the Stormers responded soon after as they went up the other end, set up a 5m lineout and powered a maul over, with Deon Fourie dotting down the five pointer to make it 30-16 in the 65^th minute, which proved to be the final points of the game.

Scorers

Stormers: Tries – Evan Roos, Herschel Jantjies, Dan du Plessis, Deon Fourie; Conversions – Jean-Luc du Preez (2); Penalties – Kade Wolhuter (2)

Clermont: Try – Bautista Delguy; Conversion – Gabin Michet; Penalties – Anthony Belleau (3)