Same old touring woes for Stormers

MATCH REPORT: The Stormers continued their poor form on overseas soil after suffering a 24-37 defeat to the Ospreys in the United Rugby Championship at the Brewery Field.

The Stormers started the match looking a bit rusty but a good patient attacking build-up from their own half saw Du Plessis give the assist to Zas to open the scoring for the visitors before Dan Edwards responded for the hosts with a penalty, but Mathee quickly cancelled it out with a penalty of his own in the 12th minute.

The Stormers had another attacking opportunity off a scrum but squandered it by conceding a free-kick for an early shove, but Matthee at a later stage from long range slotted a penalty to give his side a 10 point lead after 23 minutes.

Ospreys had a good build-up soon after Morgan-Williams made a good break and got tackled just short of the line but Jack Morgan followed up to score the try to bring the Ospreys back within three points.

The home side earned another penalty at the breakdown in the 38th minute but the Stormers quickly cancelled it out after the clock went into the red as Matthee restored the lead to head into the break .

The Stormers opened the second-half scoring through a Damian Willemse drop-goal in the 45th minute ,but minutes later Jack Morgan put the Stormers under pressure five metres from their line with a grubber kick – which the Stormers won the lineout from and formed a maul but got pushed into touch and that led to a lineout to the home side which Morgan-Williams scored from to take the lead for the first time.

The home side had their tails up after that score, leaving the Stormers scrambling in defence with their counter-attacking runs and Edwards slotting a drop-goal to give his side a four point buffer.

The home side added more points in the 64th minute when Reuben Morgan-Williams off a set lineout broke the Stormers’ line and set Dan Edwards up to open up an 11 point lead – but Shickerling struck back with 10 minutes to go to reduce the deficit to six points.

The Stormers had an opportunity to steal the match, but heroic defensive work by the Ospreys saw them earn the breakdown penalty which was followed up by another penalty.

The Ospreys kicked to the corner and formed a strong rolling maul off the lineout which the Ben-Jason Dixon illegally collapsed and the hosts earned the penalty-try to deny the Stormers any match points – with Dixon recieving a yellow-card for his indiscretion.

Scorers: 

For the Ospreys:
Tries: Morgan, Morgan-Williams, Edwards, Penalty try does not require a conversion.
Cons: Edwards 3
Pens: Edwards 3
DG: Edwards

For the Stormers:
Tries: Zas, Schickerling
Con: Matthee
Pens: Mathee 3
DG: Willemse

Yellow card: Ben-Jason Dixon (Stormers; 80th minute – illegally collapsing a maul at momentum)

Teams: 

Ospreys: 15 Jack Walsh, 14 Luke Morgan, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Keiran Williams, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Reuben Morgan-Williams, 8 Morgan Morris, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Jac Morgan (captain), 5 Adam Beard, 4 James Ratti, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Dewi Lake, 1 Gareth Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Ethan Lewis, 17 Garyn Phillips, 18 Ben Warren, 19 Huw Sutton, 20 Harri Deaves, 21 Luke Davies, 22 Phil Cokanasiga, 23 Max Nagy.

Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis (captain), 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 David Ewers, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 JD Schickerling, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 23 Angelo Davids.

Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Rhys Jones (Wales), Ben Connor (Wales)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)

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