The DHL Stormers endured a Friday night to forget in Belfast as the defending champions suffered a heavy defeat to Ulster during which they lost five players to injury.
Already without a host of key players due to either Springbok resting protocol or simply being spared the trip to Ireland, the Stormers had flank Junior Pokomela and Clayton Blommetjies withdraw before kick-off, forcing a complete re-jig of their matchday-23.
Kade Wolhuter, originally down as a substitute, was brought in to start at fullback, while the Stormers had to revert to a six-two split on the bench which featured two hookers as Andre-Hugo Venter was called up.
Things did not get any better for the visitors as starting hooker JJ Kotze had to be stretchered off with injury to his head and neck area just three minutes into the match. Kotze was followed off by No 8 Evan Roos and flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis as the Stormers fell 21-0 down at half-time.
If the Stormers had any hope of turning the result around in the second half, that was quickly extinguished as Ulster added a couple more tries after Ben-Jason Dixon was yellow-carded for a high tackle. Marcel Theunissen did go over with four minutes to play to ensure the game wasn’t a complete whitewash, but by that stage, the damage had already been done.
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