Evan Roos marked his return to action with a try as the DHL Stormers beat Clermont at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday to secure a place in the Champions Cup round of 16.
It was a game for the substitutes as rampaging No 8 Roos and halfbacks Herschel Jantjies and Jean-Luc du Plessis played decisive roles off the bench to spark a Stormers comeback from arguably their worst first half of the season in a 30-16 win.
ɪɴsᴛᴀɴᴛ ɪᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ
Evan Roos has only been on the pitch 90 seconds and he’s scored a try! That’s some #HeinekenChampionsCup debut ?
Not a bad way to celebrate your birthday on your return from injury ?
Check out our interview with @THESTORMERS‘ 8️⃣ before the season ?
— Heineken Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) January 21, 2023
The victory sees the Stormers momentarily climb into second place – with Toulouse set to host Munster on Sunday – and secure a top four finish in Pool B.
Trailing 6-3 at the break, the Stormers had forced Clermont to make over 100 tackles in the first half, but struggled to break through the French blockade.
The hosts seemed to get more and more frustrated and tired as the first half went on, making four handling errors and conceding six penalties.
When flyhalf Anthony Belleau put Clermont 9-6 up, the decision was made five minutes into the second half to deploy Roos, Du Plessis and Jantjies. The changes paid almost immediate dividends as Du Plessis put through a clever grubber that earned Belleau a yellow card for knocking it straight into touch. From the subsequent maul, Roos showed incredible leg drive to mark his return from injury with a try.
The Stormers upped the intensity from there as Suleiman Hartzenberg broke the line and put Jantjies over, before Dan du Plessis sliced through Clermont’s defence and sprinted clear to score.
You can’t take your eyes off this @THESTORMERS team for a second! ??
Suleiman Hartzenberg breaks down the wing. He loses his shorts but keeps his composure to offload to Herschel Jantjies who provides a superb finish in the corner ???#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/cWh0XK0MY5
— Heineken Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) January 21, 2023
While Bautista Delguy threatened to get the visitors back into the game with an intercept try, the Stormers won a penalty from the subsequent kick-off, went for a close-range lineout and Deon Fourie was driven over to secure the much-needed bonus point.
Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix