Cape Town — Impressive defence on their try line just before half-time, and a magical Damian Willemse try in the second half helped the Stormers secure a 32-28 win over Harlequins on Saturday that saw them progress to the quarter-final of the European Champions Cup.
They joined the Sharks in the final eight of the tournament after scoring five tries to four in front of a 33 000-plus strong crowd in the DHL Stadium.
It was not always smooth sailing for the home side, though as quite a few errors and penalties halted them from putting the visitors away.
Balls were knocked on in good attacking positions and too many penalties against them halted the team from building up steam to throw the knock-out punch.
But the good in the match far outweighed the bad even if Quins fought right until the end to make the score more respectable.
Two of the Stormers' tries, arguably the best of the day, came off the boot of flyhalf Manie Libbok in the first and second forty minutes.
It took the home side 53 seconds to register their first score when a Libbok crossfield kick found space and left winger Seabelo Senatla fielded the ball which was returned down the backline to put the evergreen flanker Deon Fourie over.
When Willemse, while on his tippy toes to avoid the touchline, dived over in the second half, it was another Libbok kick that found space.
This kick was fielded by leftwinger Seabelo Senatla who popped the ball to the Stormers fullback who planted the ball with one hand over the try line while magically avoiding the touch-in-goal line.
Fourie scored a brace and was ever-present in the time he was on the field, turning over crucial possession when his team was under pressure and slowing the ball of Quins down.
As expected the forwards battle was an almost straight-down-the-line contest with no team really having the upper hand in the scrums.
Where the Stormers did get the ascendency was their driving maul. In both halves, they executed it brilliantly when they got into scoring territory.
Fourie's second and a Willie Englebrecht score with five minutes left in the game secured tries off the back of solid rolling mauls.
The defensive effort of the Stormers also deserves praise.
For almost the whole afternoon, they kept the dangerous backline of the visitors honest.
Quins' flyhalf Marcus Smith never really got any space to try his trickery and for about 75 minutes he was kept in place. So too the dangerous centre Andre Esterhuizen who tried to create space with some steamrolling runs, but Dan du Plessis, Ruhan Nel and company kept him at bay.
The lock pairing of Marvin Orie and Ernst van Rhyn, in his 50th game for the Stormers, acquitted them excellently of their task. They won the lineouts for the rolling mauls and put the Harlequins jumpers under pressure.
Orie was also rock solid in defence and was one of the players who put their bodies on the line defending the try line shortly before halftime when Quins could not score.
Three tries in the last three minutes of the game made the score more respectable for the visiting side as the Stormers' defence took a snooze after being up 32-7.
But it's safe to say that in most of the predicted battles on the field, the Stormers players came out on top.
Libbok had the upper hand over Smith, Du Plessis kept Esterhuizen from creating havoc in the midfield, scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies overshadowed England international Danny Care with his nippy play behind the rucks and scrum, while tighthead Frans Malherbe got the better of the chirping England prop Joe Marler.
Point-scorers
Stormers 32 — Tries: Deon Fourie (2), Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse, Willie Engelbrecht. Conversion: Manie Libbok. Penalty: Libbok.
Harlequins 28 — Tries: Alex Dombrandt (2), Andre Esterhuizen, Joe Marchant. Conversions: Marcus Smith (4).
IOL Sport