The Stormers secured their place in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship playoffs with a hard-fought victory over a youthful Leinster team in Cape Town on Saturday.
The 20-13 win, courtesy of a penalty try in the 65th minute, had the home side reclaiming their place in the top four of the URC.
What’s more, with Ospreys having secured an incredible comeback win over the Scarlets, the Stormers were able to confirm their place in the URC playoffs.
The Cape Town team are level on 56 points with Munster and the Sharks. Regardless of the result in the final-round fixture against the Scarlets in Llanelli, the 13-point differential between the two teams means that the Welsh side will not be able to displace the Stormers in the top eight.
The Stormers will still be searching to secure a home quarter-final, so will likely send as strong a squad as they can to Wales.
The victory over Leinster was not the result of a clinical performance as the Stormers mixed moments of stellar handling with poor composure, while Leinster gave a very good account of themselves with some mature tactical play and an incredible rush defence shutting down the Stormers playmakers.
The Irish side went into the break with a deserved 6-3 lead thanks to two penalties from flyhalf Ciaran Frawley.
The hosts, eager to get a four-try bonus point, turned down a number of kickable penalties throughout the game but, for the most part, it was a performance filled with errors and penalties.
In a tense second half, the Stormers came out with urgency and took the lead for the first time since the 15th minute of the match when Warrick Gelant scored in the corner. Despite being twice reduced to 14 men through the sin bin, Leinster deserve plenty of credit for some incredible defence, with including three try-saving tackles between the 46th and 51st minute.
Even when Seabelo Senatala’s acrobatic finish gave the Stormers a seven-point lead, Leinster fought back to level the scores at 13-13 when loosehead prop Ed Byrne powered over for a try.
That was when the Stormers started using the power of their maul to grind down the visitors, it ultimately paying dividends when they earned the decisive penalty try in the 66th minute.
Photo: Twitter/@THESTORMERS
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