Stormers, Sharks blown away in Champions Cup quarters

The Stormers and Sharks were blown away in contrasting performances in their Champions Cup quarterfinals against Exeter Chiefs and Stade Toulousain in England and France respectively on Saturday.

For the Stormers it was a dreadful first half hour that cost them dearly in their 42-17 loss at Sandy Park, while for the Sharks it was a late game capitulation that handed Toulouse a massive 54-20 win at the Stade Ernest Wallon.

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In the Stormers match a superb start from Exeter saw them power into a 21-0 lead after 30 minutes, with them taking that score into the halftime break.

The second half was then a much tighter affair with both sides managing three tries each, but with the damage having been done in the first half hour the Stormers were never really in the chase.

The Stormers were also without the services of Springbok loose forward Deon Fourie, who was ruled out due to an eye socket injury, and his absence at the breakdown in stealing balls and slowing down the opposition was keenly missed.

“Exeter’s first 20 minutes I haven’t seen in all the work we’ve done on them, we haven’t seen that from them in a while. They were superb and literally blew us away,” admitted Stormers coach John Dobson after the match.

“In that first 20 minutes, we were making too many single tackles, we weren’t going in for any steals and their ball was too quick. That’s something where we certainly missed Deon (Fourie).

“We were entirely flat, but the way they attacked, their physicality, I just felt we were on the ropes from minute one. Credit to Exeter for their fight.”

Strong initial showing

In the Sharks match it was almost the opposite as the hosts put in a strong initial showing before being blown off the park in the closing stages.

The Sharks led 10-3 after 30 minutes, but went into the halftime break 14-10 down, before both sides traded tries in the early stages of the second half with the score 26-20 in favour of the hosts going into the final 15 minutes.

It was then a disastrous finish for the visitors as Toulouse ran rampant over the final 12 minutes, running in four tries to hand the Sharks a heavy beating.

“It was particularly disappointing as we had been extremely competitive for so long and with barely 20 minutes to go we still had a chance to win,” said Sharks coach Neil Powell after the match.

“When you play in the knockout rounds of a competition like the Champions Cup against an excellent team like Toulouse, who know what it takes to be successful, you have to be more clinical and try to limit mistakes.”