Heartbreak for Ulster as Stormers steal victory
COACH Dan McFarland said Ulster only had themselves to blame after getting caught at the death by a Stormers side who struck in the final play to set up an allSouth African URC final next weekend against the Bulls.
Ulster seemed poised to advance to the first URC final but the Stormers snatched it deep into stoppage time at DHL Stadium in Cape Town.
Ulster, who recovered from 10-0 down after 14 minutes to lead by five points at the break, failed to score in the second-half and McFarland said they could have few complaints despite the heartbreaking manner of the loss.
“We didn’t deserve to win that game. That third quarter, we had an opportunity to put that game to bed and we turned the ball over so many times. At semifinal level you can’t afford to be so profligate with the ball.
“It’s disappointing but I’m proud of our effort,” he said as their trophy famine heads into a 17th season.
Stormers did all the early running and got off the mark on four minutes with a superb lineout drive finished by hooker JJ Kotze.
Ten minutes later they added a second when No.8 Evan Roos went blindside off a scrum, exchanged passes with scrum-half Herschel Jantjies and raced over.
Manie Libbok missed both conversions and also a drop goal before the break, by which stage Ulster had edged ahead. First, they got the verdict from what looked like a forward pass from Stewart
Moore in putting Robert Baloucoune over.
Then Baloucoune turned provider to send Moore through nine minutes later – Cooney’s conversion making it 15-10 at the interval.
Ulster continued to have an edge after the restart but just could not increase their lead, even when Stormers replacement lock Adre Smith was sent off for gouging ten minutes from time.
John Dobson’s men struck with the clock five minutes in the red following a series of tapped penalties and scrums, with full-back Warrick Gelant scoring in the left corner to level the match and then Libbok’s conversion, which seemed wide, was adjudged to have crept inside the right post to secure a remarkable win.