Brutal battle in Gqeberha sees battered and bruised Stormers go down to Toulon

IT WAS FEROCIOUS, fiery, brutal and ugly, and unfortunately for the Stormers, they lost the battle and the war in going down 24-14 to Toulon in their Champions Cup opener in Gqeberha on Saturday.

The Cape side recovered well from an early 10-0 deficit to grab a 14-10 lead on the stroke of halftime in front of an impressive 28,000-strong crowd at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

But their lack of cohesion on attack and slipped tackles in defence proved costly as the French giants roared back in the last half-an-hour to clinch a famous victory.

Stormers coach John Dobson would have been satisfied with the commitment and tenacity shown by his players, but they were ultimately outclassed by a more streetwise and physical Toulon side who maintained their composure to come out on top in the big moments.

That doesn’t mean that the Capetonians didn’t have opportunities to take charge, though, but they wasted a few scoring chances inside the Toulon 22 and missed touch from a penalty.

It was the French outfit who were quicker out of the blocks, and they were on the scoreboard within five minutes as pacy left wing Gabin Villiere kicked the ball ahead and dotted down after a strong run by flyhalf Dan Biggar.

The hosts then had to contend with losing openside flank Keke Morabe, who took a blow to his right leg after a ruck clean-out, in the ninth minute, and he was replaced by Marcel Theunissen.

But Toulon added another three points through scrumhalf Baptiste Serin’s penalty, and it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Stormers in the ‘Friendly City’.

The Cape side, though, finally got things going on attack, and fullback Warrick Gelant came up with something special.

After wing Suleiman Hartzenberg made the hard run and offload, Gelant produced some dazzling footwork to score a terrific try in the corner in the 15th minute, which flyhalf Manie Libbok converted from the touchline.

The Stormers, though, battled to put together a series of meaningful phases and produced a helter-skelter type of performance with ball-in-hand, while two crucial five-metre lineout drives were wasted when the ball was knocked-on.

They were also drawn into a number of off-the-ball skirmishes by Toulon, which disrupted their own momentum.

But the Capetonians finally managed to avoid any errors just before halftime, where hooker Joseph Dweba showed excellent control to keep the maul going and then scoring to put his team into the lead.

After a strong start to the second half, the home side lost No 8 Willie Engelbrecht, who had displayed tremendous physicality up to that point, to a yellow card for collapsing a Toulon maul in the 51st minute.

A long-range penalty at goal by Libbok was short, and the Stormers were made to pay for not converting their pressure into points.

Powerful Toulon No 8 Facundo Isa – arguably the best in the world in his position and one of Argentina’s best players – took a tap from a free kick five metres out and barged his way through a few flimsy Stormers tackles to score in the 58th minute

Not long after that, the French club clinched the victory when scrumhalf and Player-of-the-Match Serin hacked the ball ahead and dotted down after Libbok was drilled in a tackle by Villiere.

There was late drama when Toulon replacement flank Yannick Youyoutte was given a red card for making head contact in a tackle on Libbok, which saw the Stormers No 10 bleeding from the nose and going off on a stretcher.

Toulon fullback Marius Domon and Stormers wing Leolin Zas then received yellow cards too, but the visitors held on for a deserved triumph.

For the Stormers, though, it was a day to forget, and now they have to travel to England to face Harlequins in London next weekend with their egos and bodies battered and bruised.

Points-Scorers

Stormers 14 – Tries: Warrick Gelant, Joseph Dweba. Conversions: Manie Libbok (2).

Toulon 24 – Tries: Gabin Villiere, Facundo Isa, Baptiste Serin. Conversions: Serin (3). Penalty: Serin (1).