Stormers roll with punches before delivering knockout blow

Defending champs La Rochelle had wind taken from their sails in Cape Town

The Stormers rolled with the punches before being presented the opportunity to deliver an unexpected knockout blow in their Champions Cup pool match against La Rochelle.

In front of a relatively small home crowd they appeared dead and just about buried before their hopes were resurrected by the 76th-minute red card to replacement front-ranker Joel Sclavi that left the two-time champions a player short and the Stormers with a reprieve from the ropes.

An Andre-Hugo Venter maul try to nerveless conversion from Manie Libbok after the siren helped earn the Stormers a 21-20 victory.

“I think the feeling up until the last couple of minutes was a little bit disappointed,” admitted Stormers coach John Dobson. “But from a bigger picture view, we were playing against an international-class team. I made a joke with the team about how Mike Tyson used to say that everyone has a plan before they get punched in the face.”

The Stormers certainly copped a few blows and in boxing parlance would have been well behind on the judges' scorecard as the game drew to a climax.

Their imprecision cost them when on attack, while the hosts were disorganised in defence when La Rochelle scored their two tries.

La Rochelle also taught the hosts a lesson at the breakdown with flanker Levani Botia unsurprisingly the principal exponent.

Crucially though, the Stormers stayed in the fight, most notably through the footing they got in the scrum.

It will come as huge comfort to Dobson and Co that the Stormers were able to go toe-to-toe with perhaps the most formidable of heavyweights in Europe.

“Credit to our fight but we didn't play well at all. What was it, five, six out of 10 by us and we still beat La Rochelle.

“We didn't play cleverly. I thought we got into an arm wrestle with them which is not what you want. We had a plan to counterattack more, which we didn't do. That we won the arm wrestle is amazing,” said Dobson.

The Stormers' doggedness more than their craft kept them in the contest. Captain Deon Fourie perhaps exemplified the home team's mongrel with lock Adré Smith and No8 Evan Roos also tugging at the leash.

“These one-point wins are turning me grey,” Fourie quipped about the close matches he has been involved in for club in country over the last few months. “At times we played for ourselves. The bounce of the ball did not go our way at the start of the game. They continued to fight and I can't for more,” said Fourie.

The Stormers are back in United Rugby Championship action next week when they clash with old foes the Bulls.

“We will learn from the mistakes and move on,” said Fourie. “A big game next week at home again against the Bulls. We have a lot to work on.”