In the Investec Champions Cup, the DHL Stormers were left heartbroken after their 28-27 defeat against Toulon in France on Saturday in a nail-biting clash, and it was a case of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for the Vodacom Bulls, who went down 25-21 to the Glasgow Warriors in a tense encounter in Scotland.<\/p>\n
In the EPCR Challenge Cup, meanwhile, the Hollywoodbets Sharks went down 29-12 against Connacht in Ireland, with these results bringing down the curtain on their European campaigns this season.<\/p>\n
The quarterfinals in both competitions will play out next weekend, while the domestic franchises will have an extra week to regroup before the Vodacom United Rugby Championship resumes in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Heartbreak for the Stormers against 13-man Toulon<\/p>\n
It was a case of pure heartbreak for the DHL Stormers as they suffered a nail-biting 28-27 defeat against Toulon at\u00a0Stade Felix Mayol on Saturday in a thrilling encounter that kept fans on the edge of their seats until the final play despite the hosts playing with 13 men in the dying minutes.<\/p>\n
Toulon held a narrow 14-13 halftime lead after they touched down twice in the first half, while limiting the Capetonians to a converted try and two penalty goals before the break, which saw them hold the narrow lead going into the change room.<\/p>\n
The second half was a gripping affair as the DHL Stormers put up a brave fight until after the regular 80 minutes of play, only to be denied a few crucial chances while the Frenchmen were reduced to 14 and then 13 men in the final 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
Toulon scored the first points of the game in the eighth minute with their first try after showing their intent in the opening minutes, but a penalty goal by\u00a0Jurie Matthee in the 19th\u00a0minute, followed by a try by Adre Smith minutes later\u00a0from a great pass in a lineout and fantastic support play saw them score their first five-pointer, and the successful conversion pushed them 10-7 up.<\/p>\n
Toulon cancelled this out with their second try 11 minutes before halftime, compliments of a good pass out wide, but the DHL Stormers struck again with their second penalty goal six minutes before the hooter sounded, which saw the visitors enter the break trailing by only one point.<\/p>\n
The Cape side had two opportunities to score before and after the break, respectively, but they were unable to convert those chances into points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, they kept fighting, and Evan Roos touched down in the 53rd minute following intense pressure close to the line to regain the lead.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before Toulon hit back with their third try, and it was once again a one-point game.<\/p>\n
The hosts made a crucial breakthrough in the 65th\u00a0minute with another well-timed pass out wide to take a handy eight-point lead.<\/p>\n
It took the DHL Stormers three attempts to finally score their third try three minutes from time by\u00a0Imad Khan\u00a0to trail 28-27, and had it not been from a fine defensive effort by the hosts, they could have created a massive upset \u2013 but it was not to be as the French side held on for dear life on defence and managed to hold onto the nail-biting victory to progress to the quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
Scorers:<\/p>\n
Toulon 28 (14) \u2013 Tries:\u00a0Ben White, Ga\u00ebl Drean, Mathis Ferte, Setariki Tuicuvu.\u00a0Conversions:\u00a0Marius Domon, Tomas Albornoz (3).<\/p>\n
DHL Stormers 27 (13) \u2013 Tries:\u00a0Adre Smith, Evan Roos, Imad Khan.\u00a0Conversions:\u00a0Jurie Matthee, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2).\u00a0Penalty Goals:\u00a0Matthee (2).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drama in Scotland as Glasgow pip Bulls<\/p>\n
There was high drama at the\u00a0Scotstoun Stadium on Saturday as the Glasgow Warriors edged the Vodacom Bulls 25-21 in a humdinger of an encounter, overturning the two-point lead the South Africans held going into the break.<\/p>\n
The first half was hard-fought as both teams threw everything at one another in at times torrential rain, and this resulted in them taking all the points on offer they could, with Glasgow scoring two tries, one of which was converted, to one by the Vodacom Bulls and three penalty goals by Handre Pollard.<\/p>\n
The men from Pretoria ran hard in the opening minutes, but were unable to break through the defence, and the first points on the scoreboard were from a penalty goal by Pollard.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before Glasgow hit back with their first try, but Pollard again opted for a penalty goal in the second quarter, which was cancelled out soon after by the hosts\u2019 second try seven minutes before halftime to push them 12-7 up.<\/p>\n
Glasgow struck again with their second try, but the missed conversion saw Pollard\u2019s third penalty goal on the stroke of halftime hand them a close 14-12 lead to close off the half.<\/p>\n
Glasgow overcame a flurry of attacking threats by the Vodacom Bulls in the early stages of the second half, but their defence held strong.<\/p>\n
They reclaimed the lead shortly before the fourth quarter with Glasgow\u2019s third try from some intense pressure close to the tryline, which saw them take a 17-14 lead, which set the scene for a tense finish to the match.<\/p>\n
The hosts fought tooth and nail to stamp their authority as the clock wound down, and their determined efforts finally paid off with their fourth try in the corner in the dying minutes, which pushed them 22-14 ahead with less than seven minutes to play.<\/p>\n
The match took a dramatic turn with three minutes to play as Marco van Staden crashed over the chalk, and the successful conversion saw them trail by a single point with the final whistle in sight.<\/p>\n
Their chances of staging a dramatic comeback, however, were dealt a big blow as Elrigh Louw received a yellow card for infringing close to the tryline, and the home side capitalised on this to score a vital penalty goal for a 25-21 victory as the clock counted down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Glasgow Warriors 25 (12) \u2013 Tries:\u00a0Max Williamson,\u00a0Jack Dempsey, Patrick Schickerling, Stafford McDowall. Conversion:\u00a0Dan Lancaster. Penalty Goal: Adam Hastings.<\/p>\n
Vodacom Bulls \u00a021 (14) \u2013 Tries:\u00a0Johann Grobbelaar,\u00a0Marco van Staden.\u00a0Conversion:\u00a0David Kriel.\u00a0Penalty Goals:\u00a0Handre Pollard (3).<\/p>\n
Strong second half steers Connacht to valuable win against Sharks<\/p>\n
It was a classic example of a match of two halves in the EPCR Challenge Cup encounter between Connacht and the Hollywoodbets Sharks at the Dexcom Stadium, where the visitors held a 12-7 halftime lead, but found themselves contending with a desperate home side in a one-sided second half, which saw the Irishmen secure a 29-12 victory to advance to the quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
The visitors dominated the first half with more than 60% possession, but the hosts stood firm against the assault, as the Hollywoodbets Sharks backline could simply not make inroads against the solid defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such was the quality of Connacht\u2019s defence in the opening stanza, the KwaZulu-Natalians had to rely on four penalty goals by Jean Smith for their 12 points, while the hosts\u2019 only points were compliments of a converted try in the 22nd minute, despite creating a few more threatening breaks.<\/p>\n
The home side, on the other hand, started to win more possession after halftime and broke the visitors\u2019 backline defence fairly frequently, which saw them score 22 unanswered points in the second stanza thanks to three tries – two of which were converted – and a penalty goal, while they kept the South Africans scoreless for the rewarding 29-12 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scorers:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Connacht 29 (7) \u2013 Tries: Chay Mullins, Cathal Forde (2), Shamus Hurley-Langton. Conversions: Sam Gilbert (3). Penalty Goal: Gilbert.<\/p>\n
Hollywoodbets Sharks 12 (12) \u2013 Penalty Goals:\u00a0Jean Smith (4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Investec Champions Cup, the DHL Stormers were left heartbroken after their 28-27 defeat against Toulon in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-586622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}