Porous defence, poor discipline see Stormers downed by Cardiff in final league URC clash

Cardiff beat the Stormers 22-16 in their United Rugby Championship clash at Cardiff Arms Park on Friday evening.

It was a case of poor discipline at times, and for the umpteenth time this season, a porous defence out wide that undid John Dobson’s charges in Wales.

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That’s taking nothing away from Cardiff, who, after enduring some tough opening minutes, got their noses in front and never looked in much danger of relinquishing the lead for the rest of the match.

In other matches on the night Connacht's 26-5 win over Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors 26-22 win over Ulster means the Lions have qualified for the play offs.

In the night’s other results, Connacht thumped Edinburgh 26-5 while the Glasgow Warriors edged Ulster 26-22 in Belfast to end their hopes for a top eight finish. That also means that the Lions are now assured of a place in the top eight regardless of Saturday’s result against Munster.

The Stormers were forced into a late change before the start of the match when Zachary Porthen was forced to withdraw from the replacement bench due to a slight hamstring strain. He was replaced by Sanzi Sandi.

The visitors dominated the opening minutes, winning two scrum penalties to set up an attack deep in the Cardiff half.

From the resulting line-out, the Stormers went close to scoring from a maul, but Cardiff held them out, although illegally.

That saw the home side lose hooker Liam Belcher to a yellow card in the fifth minute.

The Stormers opted for a scrum, and Imad Khan almost scored, but was just held up over the line, although the visitors had earned another penalty.

After a few pick-and-goes, the Stormers got the opening try they highly deserved when Adré Smith forced his way over from a metre out.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu made no mistake with the conversion to give the visitors a 7-0 lead in the eighth minute.

Cardiff did well from that point on and spent the next seven minutes in possession, winding time down for Belcher to return from his yellow card.

They were awarded a penalty for a high tackle and opted to set up an attacking line-out.

When their maul was stopped short of the line, flyhalf Ioan Lloyd landed an inch-perfect cross-kick, which right winger Jacob Beetham collected and dotted down in the right-hand corner for a converted try to tie things up at 7-7.

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That became a 12-7 lead in the 20th minute when a slick Cardiff backline move saw Tom Bowen go over in the left-hand corner as the Stormers' opening blitz quickly became nothing but a memory.

A Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty in the 30th minute cut Cardiff’s lead to 12-10, but the visitors were seeing very little of the ball.

Cardiff thought they had scored their third try through Danny Southworth, who barged his way over, but centre Ben Thomas had knocked on in the build-up, luckily for the Stormers.

Just before half-time, the Stormers lost Smith to a yellow card for a head-on-head clash.

From the resulting penalty, Cardiff’s backline again had the Stormers at sixes and sevens, and Lloyd did brilliantly to score, twisting his body and placing the ball after he was tackled just short of the line as the home side went into half-time leading 17-10.

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The Stormers were on the board first in the second half, cutting Cardiff’s lead to 17-13 through a Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty, while also welcoming Smith back on to the field following his sin-binning.

The Stormers' defence, however, was letting them down and they conceded another try, Cardiff’s fourth out wide again, with Beetham getting his second of the night to push the score out to 22-13.