The Cape Town, South Africa-based Stormers scored two late tries off New South Wales turnovers for a 32-18, bonus-point win over the defending champions the Waratahs in their Super XV match on Saturday.
In Sydney, winger Damian de Allende scored his second try of the match with nine minutes remaining, following an intercept off the Waratahs’ line. The win moved the Stormers into provisional first place in the South African conference.
Unusual handling errors from star backs Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau, and loose passing from Will Skelton, thwarted the New South Wales attack, while the usually reliable Bernard Foley had an off-night kicking, missing three from five attempts, including one penalty.
Photo: EPA
Earlier, the Dunedin-based Highlanders scored three tries in 10 minutes on either side of half-time to rally from 14-3 down and beat the Crusaders 25-20 in an all-New Zealand match in Christchurch. Winger Waisake Naholo scored two tries, touching down in the fourth and eighth minutes of the second half for the Highlanders.
The Waratahs led 15-13 at half-time through tries by wingers Taqele Naiyaravoro in the 13th minute and Rob Horne seconds before the break. The Stormers had led 13-5 at one point after three penalties from five-eighth Demetri Catrakilis and a try to De Allende in the 21st minute.
The South Africans regained the lead six minutes after the break when Kurt Coleman’s chip from inside his own 22 bounced into the arms of Kobus van Wyk and the winger raced 70m to score.
Foley slotted a penalty to cut the Stormers’ advantage to 20-18, but the match was all but over when De Allende intercepted flyhalf Foley’s errant pass to score his second try, and fullback Cheslin Kolbe clinched the Stormers’ bonus point with a late long-range try.
“It’s not easy to come to Sydney and beat the defending champions,” Stormers captain Juan de Jongh said. “Our defense was rock-solid.”
The Waratahs’ captain Dave Dennis said his side were not good enough on the night.
“We had a really good week preparation-wise, we just didn’t adjust well enough to what they threw at us,” Dennis said.
Later yesterday, the Cheetahs beat the Western Force 24-15 in Perth.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures