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Ulster unable to hold on as Stormers battle back for victory in Cape Town

By PA
Western Cape , South Africa - 30 March 2024; Steven Kitshoff of Ulster attempts to get past Hacjivah Dayimani of DHL Stormers during the United Rugby Championship match between DHL Stormers and Ulster at DHL Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo By Shaun Roy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Ulster were unable to hold out in a desperate rearguard action as DHL Stormers came from behind to triumph 13-7 in Cape Town.

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A Nick Timoney try meant the Irish province led from the seventh until the 74th minute, at which point number eight Evan Roos rewarded his side’s complete dominance in the second-half by rounding off a maul.

What the score lacked in artistry it made up for in importance as for all their control after their interval, the 2022 champions wasted chance after chance through self-inflicted errors.

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    The Stormers’ defence looked heavy legged when it was exposed in the seventh minute by a simple attack that saw Nathan Doak slip Timoney between two tacklers for an easy run in.

    Manie Libbok missed successive penalties and to mirror his difficulties, scrum-half John Cooney followed suit for Ulster despite both his attempts being in very kickable positions.

    Match Summary

    2
    Penalty Goals
    0
    1
    Tries
    1
    1
    Conversions
    1
    0
    Drop Goals
    0
    89
    Carries
    82
    6
    Line Breaks
    5
    20
    Turnovers Lost
    11
    2
    Turnovers Won
    4

    The visitors had dominated every aspect of the first half yet entered the interval with only a 7-0 lead and when play restarted they came under significant pressure, their work at the breakdown helping to keep the Stormers at bay.

    Number eight Roos almost finished a sweeping move but he knocked on inches short due to the attention of Ulster effective scramble defence.

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    The Stormers won a scrum penalty and Libbok was finally off the mark but then a maul that was creeping over the whitewash ended because of a knock on in the dewy conditions.

    As the match entered the final quarter, Ulster still led but were creaking amid relentless pressure with David McCann’s departure to the sin-bin adding to their problems.

    The Stormers launched their backline at speed only for yet another handling error to intervene and they were unable to score a point when McCann was off the pitch.

    But the decisive score finally came in the 75th minute when Roos crashed over the line from a line-out maul with Libbok nailing a tricky conversion and then adding an overtime penalty.

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    Comments

    1 Comment
    F
    Flankly 480 days ago

    It’s not about “holding out”. You need to be in the 20 point range to talk about holding out.


    The story of the game is that Ulster could not get any other points beyond the first half try. The probability that this Stormers side would finish with less than 7 points is roughly zero.


    Ulster defense was fantastic, but they really struggled to score. And you seldom win games with a score of 7.

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    NH 2 hours ago
    'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

    Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

    17 Go to comments
    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

    Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


    Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


    No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


    So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


    The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

    68 Go to comments
    LONG READ
    LONG READ 'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse' 'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'