Champions Cup Wrap: Sharks march on, Stormers bounce back and Bulls falter in Champions Cup

The Sharks top start to the Champions Cup continued as they picked up an impressive away win over Bordeaux-Begles in France, while the Stormers clinched a bonus point win at home over London Irish and the Bulls received a hiding from Exeter Chiefs in England over the weekend.

The Sharks followed up their bonus point home win over Harlequins with a solid 19-16 away win over Bordeaux to put themselves in a great position to qualify for the knockouts of the competition.

It was a tough game of few opportunities, with both teams fronting up well on defence, but after the hosts took a 13-9 lead into the halftime break, the Sharks did well to fight back in the second half to clinch the result in the end.

Sharks prop Thomas du Toit was named man-of-the-match and said: “It was very stop-start and physical. In the second half things started to get more open and got going a bit. But credit to the boys. They really stuck to it and we are very happy with the win.

“A win away in France is always a massive achievement. It has been a great start to the competition for us and we are very happy to get the result.”

The Stormers bounced back from their opening loss against Clermont in France with a strong 34-14 bonus point win over London Irish to get their campaign up and running.

The first half was a tight affair with the Stormers taking a 10-0 lead into the shed, before the game burst to life in the second half with the home side winning it 24-14, while an 81^st minute try to replacement loose forward Junior Pokomela gave them the important bonus point.

The Bulls second string team was brought back down to earth after their impressive opening win over Lyon last weekend, with them soundly beaten 44-14 by Exeter Chiefs.

It was always going to be a tall ask for the largely inexperienced group, but they can be proud of a strong second half performance, after they went into the break trailing heavily at 32-7.

“It was a tough one, no coach likes to lose. But the positives are we have a batch of young guys who have come out here, and the score in the second half was 12-7,´said Director of Rugby Jake White.

“They have a very well settled team with a coach who has been with them for a while. They’re a well-oiled team and if you give them 10 penalties and 32 points in the first half it’s always going to be an uphill battle.

“So the positives are we didn’t lie down and die in the second half. When they put their reserves on and we brought on our bench we probably matched them.”