Hacjivah Dayimani sends message to Springboks coaches as Stormers beat Sale Sharks

The Stormers boosted their Champions Cup prospects after they secured a thoroughly deserved 31-24 triumph over Sale Sharks in Cape Town.

Led by the brilliant Hacjivah Dayimani, who scored the opening try and wreaked havoc in broken field, the hosts had too much class for the visitors.

Sale were resilient and earned a losing bonus-point, but Alex Sanderson’s men will probably have to beat defending champions La Rochelle next weekend to qualify for the Champions Cup knockout stages.

They did well to stay within touching distance, given the chances the South African outfit created. The Stormers touched down four times, with Suleiman Hartzenberg and Leolin Zas (twice) following Dayimani across the whitewash, but it could have been more.

Instead, their errors allowed the visitors to remain in the contest, and Jonny Hill, Agustin Creevy and Sam Bedlow made sure that the Sharks went back to England with something to show for their efforts.

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This was always going to be a tall order for the Sharks, despite their results at the start of this season. In truth, they haven’t played well for the majority of the campaign, and that came to a head against Bristol last weekend.

The Stormers are also outstanding at home, and the opening exchanges showed why, as they crossed the whitewash in the opening 10 minutes.

Some lovely hands on the gain line, involving Springboks playmaker Manie Libbok, set Dayimani free, and the number eight shrugged off a couple of tacklers to touch down.

It was an impressive start and one which got even better when Sale got it completely wrong in their own half. Rob du Preez looked for the cross-field kick, but it simply wasn’t on, and Hartzenberg easily charged it down and crossed the whitewash.

The effort was there from Sale, especially defensively, but they were lacklustre in attack. That was until Du Preez found Hill with a nice short pass, and the England second-row scampered over the line to get them back into the contest.

That seemed to anger the hosts, who soon restored their 14-point buffer. Dayimani had sent a warning to the Englishmen with a stunning run from his own 22 before they were rewarded for their endeavour through Zas.

However, the visitors would not go away and somehow got themselves back into the contest at the break through Creevy’s close-range effort.

Sale would also start the second period well as the Stormers began to get frustrated, making a number of needless mistakes.

That led to a kickable infringement, which Du Preez duly converted to reduce the arrears to four points.

John Dobson’s charges were not quite at their best, but sometimes that does not matter with the individual quality that they have.

They can strike at any time, and that’s what happened when Herschel Jantjies spotted two lumbering Sale forwards out wide. The scrum-half sent Zas scampering away from them, and after a one-two with Dayimani, the wing went over unopposed.

The errors were not gone from the Stormers’ game, though, and after Libbok had extended their buffer with a penalty, Sale responded.

Zas went from hero to villain, bizarrely losing control of the ball while on his own line and giving Bedlow the simplest of finishes.

It gave the Sharks a priceless losing bonus-point, which could well be important next weekend.

The teams

Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie (c), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Sti Sithole
Replacements: 16 Joseph Dweba, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Nama Xaba, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Warrick Gelant

Sale Sharks: 15 Telusa Veainu, 14 Alex Wills, 13 Sam James, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Arron Reed, 10 Rob du Preez, 9 Gus Warr, 8 Josh Beaumont, 7 Ben Curry (c), 6 Sam Dugdale, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Ben Bamber, 3 James Harper, 2 Agustin Creevy, 1 Ross Harrison
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Tumy Onasanya, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Rouban Birch, 20 Tommy Taylor, 21 Nye Thomas, 22 Tom Curtis, 23 Rekeiti Ma’asi-White

Referee: Luc Ramos (Fra)
Assistant Referees: Jeremy Rozier (Fra), Evan Uruzmendi (Fra)
TMO: Patrick Dellac (Fra)

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