Steve Borthwick watches mismatch as Harlequins duo plunder hat-tricks in rout of Stormers

Harlequins 53 Stormers 16

Alex Dombrandt and Cadan Murley plundered hat-tricks in front of England head coach Steve Borthwick as Harlequins corrected their Champions Cup campaign by hitting a half-century against a Stormers outfit that subsided in predictable fashion.

As Borthwick well knows, any victory over South African opponents is worth savouring and a win for the hosts completed a 3-0 clean sweep for English teams on a day of fixtures between the nations. While they needed to press through a poor start, Harlequins pulled clear and continued a heartening weekend for the Premiership.

The Stormers were admirably industrious, yet found themselves hampered by three yellow cards as well as a long injury list and the inherent difficulties that cross-hemisphere travel and tight scheduling have introduced to this competition. We are sure to have an absorbing knock-out stage, but pool matches are undeniably messy and often unfulfilling.

Harlequins, of course, could only beat what was in front of them and had to respond to their loss to Racing 92. Having extended his stay at Harlequins until 2028 at least, Marcus Smith celebrated with a classy outing. Danny Care orchestrated matters, Chandler Cunningham-South was rambunctious and Rodrigo Isgró roamed dangerously, particularly as the defence tired.

Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson praised a “ruthless” display, even if the opening had been “too gung-ho”. Miserly defence complemented eight tries. “Last year, that might have ended 53-46,” Wilson joked.

As for the Stormers, Salmaan Moerat, who skippered the Springboks earlier this year, had returned from injury to captain a rotated team. Damian Willemse, a double World Cup-winner, sat with the coaches as a reminder of the squad’s talent at full strength. But this was a weakened line-up, even if Dave Ewers, the former Exeter Chiefs enforcer, would have been familiar to Premiership viewers.

Despite that, the Stormers began busily and went 6-0 up thanks to a pair of Jurie Matthee penalties. It had been an inauspicious opening 10 minutes for Harlequins until Murley’s opportunistic try, after defensive pressure from Care and Cunningham-South, roused them.

Harlequins remained frantic, and were reduced to 14 men when Irné Herbst saw yellow for a high tackle on Moerat. Luke Northmore’s break from the tail of a line-out provided impetus around the half-hour mark. A penalty carried Harlequins close and Care wriggled over. The third arrived rapidly, Dombrandt cutting a trademark angle off Care’s shoulder.

A healthy half-time cushion was improved with Smith’s penalty before Matthee’s neat dropped-goal. Then Harlequins’ pressure told. Stefan Ungerer’s deliberate knock-on earned the Stormers scrum-half a stay in the sin bin. Dombrandt’s second came from a line-out drive, bagging the bonus point, and his third capped a sweeping kick-return.

Harlequins finally cut loose. More slick stuff from Dombrandt and Hammond released Murley, who tore away from the next restart. Dombrandt unselfishly passed to Murley, allowing the latter to join him on a treble. Amid all that, Seabelo Senatla and Angelo Davids picked up yellow cards for chasing restarts recklessly.

Sam Riley arrived from the bench and bustled on to the scoresheet but the Stormers were rewarded for their defiance with a fine team try finished by 19-year-old JC Mars. They have an uphill struggle to make the last 16 when the tournament reconvenes in January, whereas Harlequins will travel to Toulon with optimism. Repeating last season’s run to the semi-final may be beyond them, but they can dare to dream.

Match details

Scoring: 0-3 Matthee penalty, 0-6 Matthee penalty, 5-6 Murley try, 10-6 Care try, 12-6 Smith conversion, 17-6 Dombrandt try, 19-6 Smith conversion, 22-6 Smith penalty, 22-9 Matthee drop-goal, 27-9 Dombrandt try, 29-9 Smith conversion, 34-9 Dombrandt try, 39-9 Murley try, 44-9 Murley try, 46-9 J Evans conversion, 51-9 Riley try, 53-9 J Evans conversion, 53-14 Mars try, 53-16 Matthee conversion

Harlequins: T Green; R Isgró, O Beard, L Northmore, C Murley (W Porter, 70); M Smith (J Evans, 66), D Care; F Baxter (W Jones, 59), J Walker (S Riley, 59), S Kerrod (D Lewis, 59), I Herbst (H Browne, 70), G Hammond, C Cunningham-South (J Kenningham, 66), J Chisholm (W Evans, 59), A Dombrandt

Stormers: C Blommetjies (JC Mars, 73); A Davids, A Simelane, J-L du Plessis (J Roche, 67), S Senatla; J Matthee, S Ungerer (D Duvenage, 63); V Matongo (L Lyons, 59), JJ Kotze (A-H Venter, 50), S Sandi (C Weilbach, 63), S Moerat, C Evans, D Ewers (G Porter, 53), L Nel, W Engelbrecht (P de Villiers, 53)

Referee: L Cayre (France)

Yellow cards: Herbst 23, Ungerer 52, Senatla 60, A Davids 69