Stormers vs Bristol Bears: seven-try hosts win 49-12 despite red and yellow cards

For a spell the Stormers had only 13 men on the field, but they still scored seven tries and beat Bristol Bears 49-12 with a bonus point in their Champions Cup opener against Bristol, the first pool match of their campaign, in Cape Town on Saturday 17 October.

The Stormers had two players carded. Hooker JJ Kotze was shown a 20-minute red card shortly before half-time for head-to-head contact when he tackled the Bristol captain, Kieran Marmion. Soon after the restart Leolin Zas went to the sin bin for a high tackle, which left the hosts two men down for a period.

Neither card stopped the Stormers scoring. Jonathan Roche and Zas each crossed twice, and Seabelo Senatla, Warrick Gelant and Andre-Hugo Venter added one try apiece, enough for the bonus point that came with the win.

Perfect conversion record

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted all seven tries and finished with seven successful kicks from eight attempts at goal. John Dobson singled out the goal-kicking afterwards: "That’s a magic kicking performance. It was one of the question marks at the start of the season, and when you do that, it’s brilliant"

Bristol scored two tries, through flanker Joe Owen and replacement hooker Sol Moody, and Worsley converted one of them. On the day they could not keep up with the Stormers. French referee Kevin Bralley took charge.

Before kick-off, the players and the crowd held a moment of silence for Lions lock Hyron Andrews, who died suddenly at the age of 31.

Bristol's next Champions Cup match is at home to Munster on Saturday 12 December. They complete the pool stage against Racing 92 and Bordeaux in January.