URC: Edinburgh fall to defeat against reigning champions Stormers in Cape Town

Edinburgh came up short against an impressive Stormers side to leave the Scottish outfit winless during their mini tour of South Africa.

Mike Blair named a full-strength side, and Edinburgh dominated the early stages, opening up a 10-point lead through a Blair Kinghorn penalty and a Pierre Schoeman try.

However, Deon Fourie hit back for the hosts on the stroke of half-time, before second-half scores from Joseph Dweba and Suleiman Hartzenberg secured the Stormers a bonus point.

Dave Cherry gave Edinburgh a glimmer of hope after Sazi Sandi was sent off, but it proved little more than a consolation.

• Reaction and as it happened.

Edinburgh came up agonisingly short against the Bulls last week, and looked determined to put things right as they flew out of the blocks.

They dominated possession and territory in the opening half hour and the pressure told - Schoeman crashed over from close range after a series of Edinburgh phases inside the home 22.

The Stormers are champions for a reason, though. They rode the storm, and got their reward for some stubborn defence right on half-time. Fourie broke away from a maul unnoticed to make it a three point game at the break.

Clearly fired up after the interval, the home side went in front for the first time. They scored from another rolling maul, debutant Dweba going over on this occasion, before the boot of Manie Libbok stretched the lead further.

Kinghorn knocked over a penalty of his own, and when Evan Roos was sin-binned, Edinburgh looked well set to wrestle control of the game back.

Those hopes were dashed when Hartzenberg intercepted a misjudged pass from Chris Dean and sprinted the length of Newlands to score under the posts.

Cherry crashed over to cut the gap, after a head-on-head tackle saw Sandi see red, but Henry Immelman dropped the restart, and Stormers took full advantage to secure a bonus-point win.

Hartzenberg dotted down in the corner after Libbok unlocked the Edinburgh defence.

Edinburgh have a chance to bounce back on Friday (19:35 BST) when they host Lions in the Scottish capital.

Line-ups

Stormers: Blommetjies, Hartzenberg, du Plessis, Willemse, Davids, Libbok, de Wet; Vermaak, Dweba, Fouche, Moerat, Orie, Fourie, Dayimani, Roos.

Replacements: Venter, Harris, Sandi, Smith, van Rhyn, Pokomela, Jantjies, Mngomezulu.

Edinburgh: Immelman, Graham, Bennett, Lang, Hoyland, Kinghorn, Vellacott; Schoeman, McInally, Nel, Skinner, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Watson, Haining.

Replacements: Cherry, Venter, de Bruin, Young, Muncaster, Pyrgos, Savala, Dean.

Referee: Frank Murphy

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