Stormers focus on the positives despite crushing defeat to Quins

Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat and director of rugby John Dobson looked at the positives, despite falling in a heavy 53-16 defeat in their Champions Cup encounter against Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop in London on Saturday night.

The Stormers went into the game with an injury crisis, missing 17 frontline players, which led to them naming five franchise debutants in the team to take on the English Premiership side which was fronted by England maverick Marcus Smith.

In the end it was a big lesson for the largely inexperienced side, after they produced a strong showing in the opening 30 minutes, which they led for most of, before falling away towards the end of the first half and over the second.

“For those first 30 minutes we really did well and were in the game, but it was just lapses in concentration. And our basic one-on-on tackling let them back into the game. At the end of the day it’s going to be very hard chasing a game like that,” explained Moerat after the match.

“In the second half, it was lapses in concentration again. Then the momentum is with them, and the 50-50 calls will go their way as well. It was really tough.

“But those first 30 minutes is really the potential this group has, and if we can pull it together for longer periods we’ll be good for it.”

Decent performances

Dobson focused on some decent performances from their debutants and fringe players, who had to front up in the absence of their regular stars. They showed in the first half, and at the end of the second when they scored a late consolation try, that they have the potential to make the step up.

“I thought the new guys who haven’t played much for the Stormers, like (prop) Vernon Matongo was superb, Louw Nel was really good, and Johnny Roche when he came on for his debut. Those guys took their opportunities really well,” Dobson said.

“Connor (Esterhuizen) was good, Sazi (Sandi) was much better. It was a curious game, I don’t think any of those guys played particularly poorly but we got well beaten.

“We would’ve liked to have competed more and for the scoreline to be better, and I think we could have if a couple things had gone our way, but we’ve got to look at ourselves.”

Having lost their Champions Cup opener against Toulon in Gqeberha a week ago, the Stormers’ hopes of reaching the competition playoffs were effectively over.

They would have to win both of their final pool matches to stand a chance of getting through, and they would be confident of getting a win in their home clash against Sale Sharks, but they would need to produce an unlikely upset against French giants Racing 92 in France as well to make it.