Investec Champions Cup
Stormers (15) 39
Tries: Roos, Venter, Zas, Schickerling, Khan Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3, Khan Pens: Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Khan
Leicester (14) 26
Tries: Pearson, Wand, Blamire, Manz Cons: Searle 3
Leicester face a nervous wait to find out if they will progress to the Champions Cup last 16 after a 39-26 defeat against Stormers in Cape Town.
A Tigers side without many of their internationals put in an impressive performance and looked like they would take two bonus points from the game, but a late Imad Khan try meant they came away with only one point for scoring four tries.
Leicester have moved up to fourth in Pool Three but they will drop out of the competition if La Rochelle earn at least one point in Sunday’s home fixture with Harlequins.
Victory for Stormers means they qualify for the knockouts and will have a home game in the last 16 if La Rochelle win.
The hosts raced into a 14-point lead in the opening quarter of an hour through Evan Roos and Andre-Hugo Venter before Tigers hit back to lead thanks to tries from George Pearson and Will Wand.
Tigers hooker Jamie Blamire and Stormers wing Leolin Zas then exchanged tries early in the second half as the game remained in the balance.
Both sides earned try-bonus points as Stormers lock JD Schickerling crossed before Tom Manz did the same for the Tigers, but substitute Khan capped an impressive cameo with a late try to dent Leicester’s qualification hopes.
Tigers lost prop Will Hurd to a yellow card for a high tackle on opposite number Ntuthuko Mchunu after five minutes and Stormers immediately made the most of the extra man when number eight Roos crashed over from close range.
The set-piece brought a second Stormers try on 15 minutes when hooker Venter peeled off a maul to score in the corner.
A moment of good fortune helped put Tigers on the board as a kick through hit the corner flag and bounced off Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s leg for a line-out and full-back Pearson scored from the resulting attack.
Leicester took the lead after 26 minutes when Wand picked a great line to cruise through and Searle’s conversion made it 14-12.
Tigers could have stretched the lead but Searle missed a simple penalty in front of the posts before Feinberg-Mngomezulu showed him how it was done to give the hosts a narrow half-time lead.
Tigers regained the lead after 46 minutes with hooker Blamire scoring from a driving maul but it did not last long as Zas grabbed the Stormers’ third try to put the hosts 22-21 up with half an hour remaining.
With Stormers pushing for the bonus point try, the impressive Feinberg-Mngomezulu blotted his copybook with a forearm to the head of Wand as the fly-half attacked the Tigers line, resulting in the influential Springbok being sin-binned.
But Stormers made light of being a man down with a turnover leading to Schicklerling bounding in from distance to grab the bonus point score and Khan added the extras to take the lead out to 29-21 with 13 minutes remaining.
Khan added a penalty before seeing a kick charged down by Manz who collected the ball to cross for a Tigers try-bonus point.
But the Stormers replacement had the final say, scoring his side’s fifth try in the final minute.
Stormers: Simelane; Maart, Hartzenberg, Roche, Zas; Feinberg-Mngomezulu (capt), Ungerer; Mchunu, Venter, Fouche, Schickerling, van Heerden, de Villiers, Dixon, Roos.
Replacements: Kotze, Matongo, Porthen, Evans, Theunissen, Khan, Burger, Mars.
Yellow card: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (62)
Leicester: Pearson; Hamer-Webb, Wand, Woodward, Hassell-Collins; Searle, Whiteley; Haffar, Blamire, Hurd, Thompson, Wells, Moro, Williams Cracknell (capt).
Replacements: Theobald-Thomas, van der Flier, Loman, Manz, Ilione, Allan, Bailey, Crowley.
Yellow card: Hurd (5)
Referee: Jeremy Rozier (Fra),
Assistant referees: Pierre Brousset (Fra), Benjamin Hernandez (Fra)
TMO: Denis Grenouillet (Fra)
