URC result: Stormers beat Zebre: Four takeaways

The Stormers powered their way to a 55-7 bonus-point win over Zebre in their United Rugby Championship encounter at Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Sunday evening.

The hosts were always expected to pick up a big win, with the margin of victory the only thing in question.

Here are the important takeaways from the match.

Stormers backline does the business

The Stormers backline were in scintillating form, running in seven of the team’s nine tries.

Most of those tries were started from outside their opponents’ 22-metre line, while a couple were even started in their own half, with some superb handling and brilliant running lines on show.

The wings were in brutal finishing form as they scored five of the tries, with Man-of-the-Match Seabelo Senatla scoring three including a wonderful chip and chase, and Leolin Zas dotting down twice.

Forwards keep them on the front foot

The Stormers’ forward pack was in top form and constantly kept their team on the front foot throughout the match.

Their scrums were completely dominant throughout, winning all of their ball, while also winning a couple of tightheads.

Though they didn’t use their lineout maul as often as usual, when they did it was always moving forward and led to two tries to hooker Scarra Ntubeni, which proved to be the only tries from the forwards in the match.

Stormers doing too much

The Stormers were almost guilty of doing too much for large sections of the match.

After flying into a 21-0 lead after just 11 minutes it looked like they would bring up a cricket score. However, only two more tries were scored in the first half and two more in the first 36 minutes of the second half, which meant only four had been scored in 65 minutes of play.

But with two more in the final four minutes, the Stormers managed to run in five tries in 15 minutes at the start and end of the match.

Kicking could be vital against better teams

Stormers place kickers Manie Libbok and Tim Swiel converted only five of their joint nine attempts at goal.

Libbok slotted his first four conversion attempts but then went on to miss his final two shots.

Swiel then came on and promptly missed his first two shots, before nailing his last which was from almost in front.

Most of the misses were tricky shots from the touchline, but a few of those need to be taken, especially when they play against better teams who would punish them for those misses.