Stormers knocked out of Champions Cup despite fighting effort in Paris

The Stormers put up a strong fighting effort, but some slipped tackles and missed scoring opportunities saw them go down in a nail-biting clash against Racing 92 in Paris on Saturday evening.

Playing with a second-string side, the Cape outfit acquitted themselves well of their task against a robust home side, but some ill-discipline coupled with shoddy tackling allowed Racing to score five tries in their 31-22 victory in the City of Lights.

With the loss, the Stormers are now out of the Champions Cup and will have to wait until Sunday afternoon to see if they qualify for the Challenge Cup.

While they were knocked out of Europe's elite club rugby competition, the visitors will be happy with how they fared in the Parisian conditions and fought until the end, looking to salvage a win.

It was a cagey game for about 10 minutes after kickoff, but three tries to the Paris side in the first half paved the way for the win.

For all three scores, they found it too easy out wide to circumvent the defence of the Stormers after some ordinary tackling by the Cape side.

Winger Vinayi Haibosi scored two of the first-half five-pointers with no defenders able to get to him out wide when his side launched some good attacks.

Left winger Max Spring scored the other when the Stormers got some of their own medicine with a pin-point crossfield kick that saw him go in untouched.

Replacement hooker Andre-Hugo Venter was the sole scorer for the Stormers in the first half, but a missed lineout throw from him on the try line of Racing resulted in a spilled chance just before halftime.

If the Stormers scored from that lineout five metres from the try line, the halftime score would've looked different than the 19-10 they turned with.

The tries by Herschel Jantjies and Marcell Theunissen brought the Stormers firmly back into contention.

Flyhalf Jurie Matthee missed a difficult penalty attempt that would've put the Cape side in front 25-24 when they were trailing by only two points, but he pushed the kick to the left.

Racing had the final say when they scored the try, which sealed it four minutes before the end of the match to keep their hopes alive of progressing to the Round 16.

Scorers:

Stormers 22 (10): Tries: Andre-Hugo Venter, Herschel Jantjies, Marcel Theunissen. Conversions: Jurie Matthee (2). Penalty: Matthee.

Racing 92: Tries: Vinaya Habosi (2), Max Spring (2), Boris Palu. Conversions: Nolann le Garrec (3).