Stormers v Leicester Tigers: Five takeaways as Springboks ‘golden boy’ almost costs hosts dearly while England’s biggest club face elimination
Stormers captain Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and an inset of Leicester Tigers' Will Wand
Following Stormers’ 39-26 win over Leicester Tigers at DHL Stadium, here are our five takeaways from Saturday’s Pool Three clash in the Investec Champions Cup.
The top line
Stormers bounced back from their horror show in London to qualify for the Round of 16 and leave two-time Champions Cup champions Leicester on the brink of elimination.
A game which started in Cape Town sunshine and finished in driving rain saw a makeshift Tigers side twice lead before being gifted a golden opportunity to win when Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was yellow carded on 63 minutes.
At that point Stormers’ boss John Dobson was staring at a loss which, in its own way, would have been as embarrassing as the 61-10 ‘humiliation’ at Harlequins last Sunday.
But late tries by replacements JD Schickerling and Imad Khan averted another disaster, earned Dobson’s men a bonus point and, more than likely, home advantage in the knockout stages.
Unless Quins confound expectation and win away at La Rochelle on Sunday, the Capetonians will take second place behind Leinster, narrow winners at Bayonne, and return to the DHL Stadium for the next round.
Schickerling the hero
It was the stuff of dreams for JD Schickerling and a moment which back in August 2014 would have seemed impossible.
With 13 minutes left on the clock and Leicester pushing for the lead against 14-men, the big lock ran a support line 40 metres out and received the ball.
Twelve years ago, it would have been unthinkable. He was a teenager playing for Western Province Under-21s against the Bulls at Loftus and he broke two vertebrae in his neck.
Rushed to hospital, he underwent emergency surgery and was later told he came within 2mm of paralysis. Unsurprisingly, he was advised not to play rugby again.
Instead, he opted to have a plate inserted in his neck and after 16 months rehab, returned to the rugby field.
He has long since become an important piece in the Stormers jigsaw and when he took the pass with 67 minutes on the clock he further endeared himself to the home faithful.
Schickerling stretched his legs and ran into space. Two defenders quickly closed on him and it appeared they would either usher the 6’8 giant into touch or force a hasty decision.
Neither happened. The lock kept his head and shaped to pass to Dylan Maart outside him. That movement duped George Pearson, the Leicester full-back, and the carrier powered into the space he had made for himself to score.
The try not only earned Stormers a bonus point, it ended the contest as Leicester fell two scores behind.
Improvement after ‘humiliation’
This was not exactly the backlash many expected after Stormers conceded nine tries at Harlequins to lose for the first time this season.
With Leicester leaving their star names at home and Dobson going full metal jacket, most foresaw the sort of blowout we have seen too often across these pool stages.
Stormers did get back on the horse, capitalising on Will Hurd’s fifth-minute yellow card to score early tries through Evan Roos and Andre-Hugo Venter. But theirs was an error-strewn performance.
Twice they trailed and had Billy Searle brought his kicking boots the result could well have been different. Ultimately, they needed to bolster their scrum in the second half and exploit an unexpected rainstorm to get the job done.
“We just feel we can do so much better,” player of the match Paul de Villiers admitted. “There are still moments where we switch off a bit.”
Round of 16 has to go
When the European Cup competition was the envy of sport, every game mattered. There were six pools of four and only the pool winners plus two best runners-up advanced straight into the quarter-finals.
Adding a Round of 16 has chronically weakened the format. It is now too easy to qualify as one of four teams from each of the four pools. The upshot of that is teams focus on home wins and rarely go full bore on the road. Take Edinburgh at Bath on Friday night as the latest example. Pathetic.
Tigers were another case in point here. Those left at home included Freddie Steward, Adam Radwan, Jack van Poortvliet, Nicky Smith, Solomone Kata, Joe Heyes, Cam Henderson, Ollie Chessum and Tommy Reffell.
Yes, the understudies did remarkably well to get as close to the win as they did. And Searle will have nightmares about the penalty he fluffed in front of the sticks which would have put them five points up at half-time.
But the bottom line is Leicester lost the game and failed to muster a losing bonus point. England’s biggest club, an organisation which has reached five European finals, winning two of them, will exit the tournament unless Quins can somehow deny La Rochelle a single point on Sunday.
Team mates spare captain’s blushes
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was wearing the captain’s armband for the first time in either a Champions Cup or URC match and it could have ended horribly for him.
South Africa’s golden boy was given the honour by Dobson who felt the time had come to “invest in his leadership”. There is no doubting the fly-half’s quality. He was head and shoulder the most skilful player on the pitch.
But at times he tried too hard, or maybe it just looked that way as he was so much quicker in thought and deed than his teammates that lines were too often crossed.
And then came the moment Feinberg-Mngomezulu stuck his forearm into the face of Will Wand. It earned him a yellow card and 10 distinctly uncomfortable minutes wondering if his ill-thought action would cost his side the game.
Happily for him it did not. Schickerling scored then Imad Khan finished the job, snatching a late try, conversion and penalty. But the young Springbok will know things could have been different.
READ MORE: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu on the cusp of becoming just the third Springbok to achieve historic feat
