Elation for Stormers, despair for Bulls in thrilling Champions Cup

The Stormers and Bulls felt the different emotions on either side of the one point result coin after the Cape side clinched an exhilarating 21-20 win over La Rochelle, while the Highveld side suffered a 29-28 defeat to Lyon in the Champions Cup on Saturday.

For the Stormers it was an incredible fightback at the death that saw them steal an amazing win against La Rochelle, with a try from Andre-Hugo Venter, followed by a nail-biting touchline conversion from Manie Libbok that sealed the result at the Cape Town Stadium.

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It was not a vintage performance from the Stormers, with them making a number of mistakes throughout the game that allowed double defending champs La Rochelle to take an early 10-0 lead after six minutes and a 13-6 lead into the halftime break.

In the second half La Rochelle again capitalised on a Stormers error to go 20-9 up, only for a converted Ben Loader try after a sublime crosskick from Damian Willemse kept them in the game trailing by six points.

The visitors then thought they had won it with three minutes remaining as they scored a converted try, but just before the game could be restarted from the kick-off the TMO showed the ref foul play in the build-up, leading to a yellow card and the try being chalked off.

This led to the last second drama as the Stormers surged up the field and snuck a win they barely deserved to get up and running in the competition.

Wrong side

The Bulls fell on the wrong side of the coin as they were stunned by a second half comeback from Lyon in their match-up in France.

It was a largely second string Bulls team that had made the trip, so the game was not a massive priority, but they will be disappointed to have slipped to defeat after getting off to a strong start.

Tries to Zak Burger and Sergeal Petersen, along with a conversion and two penalties from the boot of Chris Smith saw the Bulls take an 18-7 lead after 34 minutes, which was reduced to 18-12 at halftime.

A back and forth second half then saw the Bulls extend their lead with a Smith penalty, before Lyon battled back to lead 24-21, with the Bulls hitting back through a converted Marco van Staden try to go in front 28-24, followed by Lyon finally scoring the winning try.

However the Bulls still had a shot to rescue the match with a 75^th minute penalty, only for replacement flyhalf Jaco van der Walt to pull his effort wide.