Glasgow's tour from hell: What Kyle Steyn said about both South African sides

The DHL Stormers and Glasgow Warriors have become the first teams to book spots in the BKT URC play-offs, with seven sides now left battling it out for the other six places.

They both qualified in the wake of their top-of-the-table clash in Cape Town where the Stormers won 48-12 to leapfrog the Scottish outfit and take over as league leaders.

John Dobson’s team scored six tries, including one from 23-point fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, as they recorded a convincing bonus point victory in front of a 23,740 crowd.

There was a double inside the 15 first minutes from prop Ntuthuko Mchunu, with No 8 Evan Roos extending his lead as the league’s top try scorer this season by galloping over for his 11th.

The Player of the Match award went to loosehead Mchunu who touched down for the third game in a row.

United Rugby Championship

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Stormers

16

12

4

0

56

2

Glasgow

16

11

5

0

55

3

Lions

16

10

5

1

53

4

Leinster

16

10

6

0

53

5

Munster

16

10

6

0

51

6

Cardiff Rugby

16

10

6

0

50

7

Bulls

16

10

6

0

49

8

Ulster

16

9

7

0

47

9

Connacht

16

8

8

0

44

10

Sharks

16

6

9

1

36

11

Ospreys

16

6

8

2

35

12

Edinburgh

16

6

10

0

33

13

Benetton

16

6

8

2

33

14

Dragons RFC

16

3

10

3

25

15

Scarlets

16

4

11

1

24

16

Zebre

16

2

14

0

15

He said: “We just wanted to make a statement, more for ourselves than anyone else.

“I am really proud that the boys went out, started strong and finished strong.”

Despite their defeat, Glasgow’s qualification for the play-offs was confirmed by results elsewhere.

However, it’s been a chastening two-game tour of South Africa for them as they left empty-handed, having lost 54-12 to the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions in Johannesburg last weekend.

Their skipper Kyle Steyn said: “We came here and lost the key battles both weeks.

“We lost set-piece, we lost the kicking game and we coupled that with too many errors and ill discipline.

“Credit to both teams, they were pretty good at putting us away.”

But he added: “There’s no need to panic. It’s a long season and these things happen.

“We have got a week to regroup now and we’ve got two more games, so it’s just about sharpening up for that.”

The Lions are up to third having beaten Connacht Rugby 33-21 in the battle of the league’s two in-form teams at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park, with centre Henco van Wyk scoring a brace of tries for the second week in a row.

That’s now six wins on the trot for the Lions, who touched down five times in all for maximum points, with Connacht’s own six-match winning streak having now come to an end.

It looked as though champions Leinster Rugby were going to join the Stormers and Glasgow in booking a play-off spot when they led Benetton Rugby 26-19 with just nine minutes to go.

But there was to be late drama with fly-half Jacob Umaga landing a penalty with the last kick of the game to give the Italian hosts a famous 29-26 victory.

Benetton skipper Michele Lamaro said: “I told the boys to bring everything they had and there is absolutely no better way to end our home season than this.

“Leinster are a number one team, a very tough team, so you have to put them under massive pressure to win.

“At the very end of the game, we started to believe we could win it and that made a huge difference.”

It’s a result which has seen Leinster drop down to fourth, with Munster Rugby in fifth after beating Ulster Rugby 41-14 in Limerick, while Cardiff Rugby are sixth following their 24-21 win over the Ospreys at a packed Arms Park.

You then have the Vodacom Bulls in seventh courtesy of their dramatic 23-21 win away to the Scarlets which was secured by a 79th minute penalty from Player of the Match Handre Pollard.

Ulster occupy the final play-off spot as things stand, with Connacht three points behind them in ninth.

Both the Hollywoodbets Sharks and the Ospreys are now out of the running in the Race to the Eight, with the Sharks having lost 33-28 to Edinburgh Rugby on Friday night.

In the weekend’s other fixture, the Dragons RFC scored a try in stoppage time to beat Zebre Parma 19-18 in Italy as they claimed their first league win outside of Wales for five years.