Stormers v Leinster: Five takeaways as South Africans ‘bully’ reigning champions in ‘beautifully chaotic’ opener

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Following the Stormers’ 35-0 win over Leinster at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, here are our five key takeaways from the opening fixture of the United Rugby Championship (URC) season.

The top line

The Stormers began the URC with a ruthless win over reigning champions Leinster, setting the tone for a possible title push in the process.

Things did begin slowly for the hosts, with just two Jurie Matthee penalties to their name, but they quickly went up a gear in the second-half.

An opportunistic break from Seabelo Senatla broke through the Leinster line, allowing Stefan Ungerer to slide under the sticks for the night’s opening score. His effort was quickly followed up by Evan Roos, who flopped over from the base of a strong maul. New recruit Ruan Ackermann also marked his debut with a try, crossing in a similar vain from a maul.

Rounding off the night, Matthee slipped the defence to secure the all-important bonus point.

Let chaos reign

With this being the first game of the new URC season, it always promised to be a trend-setter. If that’s the case, we’re in for a beautifully chaotic year.

This game was played at 100 mph, with almost a reckless approach to both possession and territory. Playing the ball inside your own goal-line, forwards throwing audacious offloads in broken field and cheeky chip-and-chases and dinky cross-field kicks to build attacks to boot. It was just all-out joue.

The accuracy might have been lacking for large parts, but that shouldn’t detract from what was a really entertaining match and one which shows a new intent within the URC.

Its English cousin, the PREM, has already attracted plenty of attention for its new era, but the URC is also going to be a great watch if this is the trend-setter it promised to be.

Forward dominance

An early scrum penalty to Leinster seemed to suggest they had the upper hand up-front, but that proved to be an outlier. The Stormers bullied them in this department. The front-row combination of Neethling Fouche, Andre-Hugo Venter and Vernon Matongo tore through Leinster counterparts Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy and Rabah Slimani repeatedly, winning penalties for fun as a result.

This scrum dominance fuelled a real confidence in the hosts, and it allowed them to get on the front-foot around the park.

Roos, likely revved up to prove a point after his bizarre Springboks saga earlier in the year, carried like an angry freight train ball-in-hand, while the rest of the back-row also dominated the battle at the breakdown.

The maul also became a real weapon for the Stormers. Their first disallowed try of the half, ruled out for a penalty, came as a direct result of a powerful driving maul, as did their second actual try of the game. John Dobson’s side targeted this area and built a good platform off it.

Leinster were also their own worst enemy at times. The lineout misfired, standing at an 82% success rate compared to the Stormers’ 94%, while their defence was also caught out with 32 missed tackles (a success rate of 67%) compared to just 14 (73%) from their opposition.

Yes, this Leinster pack is seriously under-strength with their Lions contingent still absent, but it was by no means an academy side either. The way they were systematically dismantled will be a worry for Leo Cullen.