Stormers fight URC history as Sharks’ Race to Eight ends

The Stormers must rewrite their league history if they are to host a play-off in the United Rugby Championship while the Race to Eight is over for the Sharks.

Forget talk of the Sharks still ‘mathematically’ having a chance. They are gone.

The Lions, in fourth place with 48 points, lead ninth place Connacht, by four league points. It is that bunched outside of the top three, with Glasgow (55 points), leading the Stormers and Leinster, who both have 51 points.

The Stormers have the superior points differential.

Those teams – from one to nine after 15 rounds – will all stay there. What will change is the order in the last three rounds.

The Stormers still control their season with three matches to play but a horror final 15 minutes against Connacht turned the prospect of a hardened win and first place in the league into home town heartbreak at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town.

The Stormers led 24-10 in the 64th minute after flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu magically beat five defenders to score. He added the two points and his seven-point moment took him past 100 points in the league this season. He is second to Lions flyhalf Chris Smith, who has scored 137 points, which included seven conversions from eight attempts against Glasgow on Saturday afternoon.

Momentarily, the Stormers moved above Glasgow to lead the URC league during the live scoring, but 15 minutes later the Stormers were beaten 33-24, with Connacht scoring three tries, for 19 points, in a last quarter characterised by Stormers individual mistakes.

The Lions, who have never lost to Glasgow at Ellis Park, continued this trend with a crushing 54-12 win. It was their third win in succession at Ellis Park against the Scottish club.

But despite not getting a league point from the match, Glasgow kept top spot because of the Stormers defeat to Connacht.

It was the first time Connacht had beaten the Stormers at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, and it was the first Connacht win against the Stormers in their last five match-ups.

Now the Stormers must create their own league history to ensure their league campaign does not end having to travel in the play-offs.

The Stormers host Glasgow on Saturday at the DHL Stadium and a victory would consolidate a top two place. Leinster, who won at the weekend against Ulster, also have 51 league points.

A Glasgow win, coupled with other results could see the Stormers drop out of the top four.

Glasgow, who lost their first ever match to the Stormers 32-7 in Cape Town in the 2021/22 season, have beaten the Stormers in their last five URC matches, one league match in Stellenbosch last season, two league matches at Scotstoun in Glasgow and a further two in the URC quarter finals in Glasgow last season and in the 2023/24 season.

What complicates the Stormers final stretch in the league is that they play Ulster in Belfast and Cardiff in Cardiff. The Stormers have not won at either venue in four matches since the launch of the URC.

History in the URC is stacked against the Stormers winning any of their last three matches, but this season has had an appetite for rewriting history.

And it is this belief the Stormers must take into the final three rounds if they are to finish in the top four and host a quarter-final.

The Sharks, crippled by the injury-enforced absence of 17 players, lost 21-17 against the Ospreys in Wales.

They lost star winger Ethan Hooker to injury when he was felled after scoring a try on half-time.

Hooker’s try was a rare highlight for the disjoined Sharks, whose scrum advantage was neutralised because of uncontested scrums in the final 20 minutes and more than this because of multiple unforced handling errors and poor decision-making.

The Sharks, who had to get five league points to mathematically still be in the Race for Eight, got just the one league point.

*Ruan Nortje, Bulls lock and Ruan Venter, Lions flank were superb as the Bulls and Lions won to remain in the Top Eight.