DHL Stormers go down in London

The DHL Stormers went down 53-16 in their Investec Champions Cup clash with Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop on Saturday.

It was a tough outing for the DHL Stormers who have been hit hard by injury this season and saw three players sent to the sin bin in the second half.

The visitors made a strong start and got on the front foot early on with two penalties from the boot of flyhalf Jurie Matthee putting them 6-0 up.

The home side got on the scoreboard when a loose ball was snapped up and sent out to wing Cadan Murley who finished in the corner.

Harlequins took the lead when veteran scrumhalf Danny Care wriggled over from close range and despite a yellow card to lock Irne Herbst for a high tackle on Salmaan Moerat, the hosts would take a 19-6 lead into half-time, with No.8 Alex Dombrandt scoring just before the break.

The hosts were first to score in the second half through a Marcus Smith penalty and the DHL Stormers responded with a drop-goal from Matthee.

The visitors were reduced to 14 when scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-down and Harlequins scored from the resulting maul, with Dombrandt getting his second.

The Harlequins skipper had his hat-trick when his team exploited some extra space out wide and things got even tougher for the DHL Stormers when Seabelo Senatla was shown a yellow card.

Murley got over for two more quick tries to seal his hat-trick as Angelo Davids became the third DHL Stormer to be shown a yellow card.

There was enough time for an eighth Harlequins try before the DHL Stormers had the final say with a late try from debutant JC Mars.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Try: Mars
Con: Matthee
Pens: Matthee 2
DG: Matthee

For Harlequins:
Tries: Murley 3, Care, Dombrandt 3, Riley
Cons: Smith 3, Evans 2
Pen: Smith

DHL Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Willie Engelbrecht, 7 Louw Nel, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Vernon Matongo.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Corne Weilbach, 19 Gary Porter, 20 Paul de Villiers, 21 Dewaldt Duvenage, 22 Jonathan Roche, 23 JC Mars.