Stormers targeted Sharks scalp in URC thrashing

Although it all came together even better than they had hoped, the Stormers had targeted their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against the Sharks in Durban to walk away with a full house of points to open up a gap on the South African Shield conference.

In the end the visitors produced a sublime performance to give the home side a hiding, clinching a bonus point 46-19 win that duly opened up a gap between themselves and the chasing SA franchises.

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The emphatic win sees the Stormers move seven points clear of third placed Ulster, who have a game in hand, while they are 10 points ahead of their closest local rivals the Bulls having played the same amount of games, and 17 ahead of the Sharks who also have a game in hand.

“We were always coming for this game, to be honest. That’s why we didn’t take people to Ulster. That was our plan. We knew this would be very important in terms of the South African conference and getting a little bit of a cushion,” explained Stormers coach John Dobson after the game.

“The emotion in this game was also thanks to us losing two URC games in a row. We said to ourselves that we can’t lose third in a row. But, I also did not expect it (the result) to turn out how it did.”

Maverick Manie

Despite the big scoreline, it was not the perfect performance from the Stormers and the result could have been even bigger had it not been for a few mistakes from maverick flyhalf Manie Libbok.

It was Libbok’s first game back for them since being injured in their Champions Cup match against London Irish last month, and he showed his full range of skills to rack up an impressive haul of 19 points, but was also off cue with a few kicks and knocked on over the try line.

“The original plan was to rest Manie for this game, but then Jean-Luc (du Plessis) went off against Ulster and we had to call him up again. So we are going to give him a bit of a break now, I think,” admitted Dobson.

“We do need to build more depth there (at flyhalf). We can’t keep relying on him every time. He did make mistakes today, but he makes things happen. That’s important in rugby. It would probably be safer with a robotic 10, but for the good of the game that we want to play, Manie’s the guy.

“I am excited about what Jean-Luc and Kade (Wolhuter) can do. They all play a similar sort of game. Manie is fantastic in opening things up. That first try set the tone of the game. That was a Stormers try, that’s who we are, and he was instrumental in that.”