The Stormers secured their place in the Champions Cup playoffs with an unconvincing win over Leicester Tigers in Cape Town, while the Bulls tight win over Section Paloise has given them a chance of making it to the knockouts. The Sharks strong win over ASM Clermont is likely not enough to get them through, and they will probably drop into the Challenge Cup last 16, while the Lions were dumped out of the EPCR after their draw with USA Perpignan in France. Although it wasn’t the best of performances, the Stormers did their job bydowning Leicester 39-26at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday evening, to earn a bonus point win to seal their spot in the Champions Cup knockouts, after not qualifying for them last season.
But they have to wait for the result of the match between La Rochelle and Harlequins in France on Sunday evening to see if they will host a playoff, with them needing the French team to beat the English side to take second place in the pool. In the match a very close first half saw both teams score two tries, but the Stormers took a 15-14 lead into the break thanks to a Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty on the hooter. The second half was then a back-and-forth affair, with Leicester continuing to stay in touch, and when the clock went red the Stormers only led by six points, before replacement scrumhalf Imad Khan scored a try to make the scoreline look more comfortable than it really was.
“It was a tough game, they were incredibly organised. Even though they were missing a few players I thought it was still a really good Leicester team,” said Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson after the match. “In the first half I thought we were pretty flat in the back 20 (minutes), and we weren’t putting pressure on them anywhere.
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We showed much better fight in the second, but it was a stressful game and there was some great rugby all-round.” The Bulls also face a wait to see if they will make it to the Champions Cup knockouts, after theirthrilling 26-24 winover Pau in France on Friday night lifted them up to fourth in their pool. They can however be overhauled by Scarlets on Sunday evening, but the Welsh side would need to pick up a very unlikely upset win over English powerhouse Northampton Saints on their home turf to do that. In the match the Bulls, who went into it on a seven game losing run, had to show tremendous character to fight back from a 21-12 halftime deficit, which became 24-12 after 48 minutes, before inching ahead by two points with eight minutes remaining and held on for a big win which will hopefully reignite their season. The Sharks gave themselves a chance of reaching the Champions Cup playoffs thanks to a strong second half showingearned them a 50-12 thrashingof ASM Clermont in Durban on Saturday afternoon.
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