Deon Fourie played a cracking game against Harlequins. Photo: Hansie Linde.
The Stormers and Harlequins are two teams that like to play adventurous rugby. But after an action-packed match at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, it was the home team’s players who cracked the whip.
Steven Kitshoff’s team scored five tries to beat the English visitors 32 – 28 in a Champions Cup duel.
Actually, the final score flatters Harlequins a bit because they scored three tries after the Stormers had the result in the bag for a long time.
The game started at the speed of light with Deon Fourie completing an excellent Stormers move. Although Alex Dombrandt scored the first of Harlequins’ tries afterwards, the first half definitely belonged to the home team.
Manie Libbok did indeed struggle with his set-piece radar, but he put the Englishmen under pressure with his tactical kicking and some of his well-calculated kicks often found the hands of a flying full-back.
Damian Willemse – who also made a few handling errors – showed that he is pure Bok when he dived over the goal line like a waffle acrobat just after the break.
???? Manie Libbok’s kick
???? Seebelo Senatla’s offload
✨ Damian Willemse’s magicThis is too neat from the DHL Stormers | #HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/3XTmz3JNMW
— SuperSport ???? (@SuperSportTV) April 1, 2023
Then Fourie was a thorn in the Harlequin flesh and in addition to his three-point ability, he also made life night for them on the ground.
Neethling Fouché and Brok Harris showed that they did not have to back Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe and they made the Harlequins’ front line sweat.
With the score at 32 – 7 in the Stormers’ favour, they took their foot off the accelerator and allowed André Esterhuizen and co to score a few tries.
But the Cape is definitely Dutch again, while Harlequins can only pull the tissues closer: For 70 minutes, all rugby jokes were on a stick.
Stormers: Tries: Deon Fourie (2), Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse and Willie Engelbrecht. Goal kicks: Manie Libbok (2). Penalty kick: Libbok.
Harlequins: Tries: Alex Dombrandt (2), André Esterhuizen and Joe Marchant. Goals: Marcus Smith (4).
