Tough weekend for SA URC sides in Italy as Stormers go down to Benetton, Lions win in Wales

Stormers’ failure to capitalise on their opportunities led to their second defeat in the early stages of the United Rugby Championship (URC) season.

The 2src22 champions of the URC went down 2src-17 to Benetton in a highly contested match in Treviso, Italy on Saturday.   

The match produced five tries, with the losers outscoring the hosts with three to two but Benetton did enough to claim the win on the day.   

Warrick Gelant, Scarra Ntubeni and Courtnall Skosan scored for the Stormers while Benetton’s tries came from Marco Zanon and Alessandro Izekor.   

The Stormers came into the game on the back of defeat to Glasgow Warriors in their first match of the tour.   

Before that, the last season’s runners up had registered back-to-back victories against the Lions in the South African derby in Johannesburg and also claimed a win over Scarlets in Cape Town.   

The two sides, Stormers and Benneton, delivered an exciting high intensity game with both teams doing their absolute best to keep each other at bay.   

The Stormers looked strong and were always threatening with their maul drives.    

The first of the three tries that were scored in the opening half was by the hosts in the