Leinster, the giants of Irish provincial rugby, were blanked at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night. It has not happened to them since provincial rivals Munster kept them scoreless 17 years ago.
Munster, back then, won 18-0 and the Stormers, in the opening round of the United Rugby Championship (URC), nearly doubled that with an emphatic 35-0 victory.
It was a monumental effort from the hosts, and one that must be celebrated as a glorious night in the club’s history. This was not Leinster at full strength, but there must be context to what that means. Leinster, for the most, double as the Irish national team, and have 30 international players on their books.
For this season’s opener, they rested the 12 players who were part of the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia in July — but they still fielded 13 internationals in their starting XV against a Stormers team missing Springboks Frans Malherbe, Salmaan Moerat, Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach and Sacha-Feinberg Mngomezulu.
The Stormers had four Test players in their match-day squad and none of the four are currently in the national equation.
Most experienced international
No 8 Evan Roos, with eight caps and 287 minutes, at an average of 36 minutes a Test, was the most experienced Stormers Test international on display.
This was no experimental Leinster team, and they certainly were not an academy mix and match.
They picked a very good XV for the start of their title defence, and it took an exceptional performance from the Stormers forwards, as a collective, more so than the wonderful individual performances, of which there were so many on the night.
Winger Seabelo Senatla was named Player of the Match, and the veteran was a menace on attack all night, but for me the biggest statement was made by prop Vernon Matongo, who hails from the Eastern suburb of Cranborne in Harare, Zimbabwe, was schooled at Northwood in KwaZulu-Natal, and completed his accounting degree at Stellenbosch University last year.
Matongo, just 22-years-old, was up against the grizzly French international tighthead prop Rabah Slimani, and the tutelage of Brok Harris was obvious in how Matongo — supported by some big heavies in the back five of the pack — neutralised Slimani, and contributed to a set piece potency led by tighthead prop Neethling Fouche.
Slamini has played 59 Tests for France, with his most recent in July against the All Blacks in New Zealand. He is 35 years old and a master of the dark arts, having played 187 matches for Stade Francais and 148 for Clermont before joining Leinster in 2024.
Impact of iconic prop
Friday night was his 24th match for Leinster and his 421st professional match. This emphasises the effort of Matongo and the impact of iconic prop Brok Harris as a scrum mentor.
BJ Dixon reminded Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus of his qualities as a blindside flanker, and Evan Roos flourished at No 8.
An indifferent all-round opening quarter, when the Stormers were ineffective with ball in hand, frantic and attempted to play too much in their own half, was countered by the maturity of the final hour and, at the final whistle, the Stormers had won all eight of their scrums, 17 of their 18 lineouts, enjoyed 62% territory, 824 kick metres from 32 kicks, and retained possession from kicks 11 times, compared to Leinster’s three.
Leinster never threatened to score, which is a credit to the Stormers more than an indictment of the visitors. The famed Leinster defence was buckled, and they missed 25 tackles from 166.
The Stormers, in the past four seasons, have the biggest home stadium attendance on average in the league, but the crowd was sparse for the season opener, which kicked off at 7pm local time.
Friday night rugger is not for a city with the worst peak hour traffic in Africa.
That was the only negative or complaint on a splendid Spring night when John Dobson’s Stormers brought the early heart to the URC season in the best city in the world.
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