TRUE BUNCH OF BARNSTORMERS
STORMERS.. 43
SEAN EVERITT says there can be no excuses after Edinburgh shipped seven tries to go down heavily to the Stormers in Cape Town.
The Gunners were always up against it having flown to South Africa in midweek to face the 2022 URC champions who haven’t lost at home all season.
To make matters worse they were without most of their Scotland stars – including Duhan van der Merwe – who watched on from the sidelines.
But Everitt admits his team just didn’t turn up, with Suleiman Hartzenberg claiming a hat trick in a onesided Stormers win.
The head coach said: “We knew the first week here was going to be tough. It’s a long flight when you go via Doha to get to Cape Town.
“It’s a massive adjustment for us but we’re not going to use that as an excuse.
“We conceded four setpiece tries today and that is disappointing because it’s bread and butter stuff.
“It’s normally after a few phases that fatigue sets in but we made it too easy for them.”
Everitt praised WP Nel after the Scotland prop made his 200th appearance for the club.
He added: “I’m so proud of that guy. We looked at his highlights package and he’s in better shape now than in his first few years at Edinburgh. He goes out there in every training session and gives his best.”
Stormers totally dominated the first half to claim four tries and the bonus point with it.
Wingers Hartzenberg and Leolin Zas bagged two scores apiece, finishing off great moves to dot down in the corner each time.
Edinburgh were barely in the contest but took advantage of two pieces of sloppy Stormers play to land two tries of their own before the break.
Jake Henry scored the first, marking his pro debut by powering over the line after great work by Mark Bennett.
The second came from Bill
Mata after the hosts had conceded a needless line-out.
Jamie Hodgson jumped highest before feeding the Fijian who showed great pace to cross the whitewash.
Edinburgh needed to have a strong start to the second period to have any chance of causing an upset.
But instead Hartzenberg soon had his hat- trick, picked out by Evan Roos to again score in the corner.
Roos showed the forwards can play a bit too, the No.8 bursting free to claim Stormers’ sixth try.
Paddy Ha r r i s on got Edinburgh’s third score to briefly halt the one-way traffic.
But Roos had the last word with his second and Stormers’ seventh try of a frantic contest.