A farewell script rarely follows the plan.
At DHL Stadium, a day meant to honour Christopher “Chippie” Solomons and celebrate Scarra Ntubeni’s final bow twisted into a bruising lesson as Connacht stunned the Stormers 33-24 in a United Rugby Championship clash that slipped through Cape fingers like a wet ball.
Solomons, the long-serving team manager since 2024, passed away suddenly last week. His family walked out to warm applause from a subdued crowd beneath the shadow of Table Mountain.
A moment bigger than the game.
Respect, remembrance and rugby.
A guard of honour for the DHL Stormers, honouring Chippie ❤️📺 Watch all the action LIVE on SuperSports 🏉@Vodacom #URC | #STOvCON pic.twitter.com/lVh9djtI2z
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) April 18, 2026
Tears flowed before kick-off, the air thick with grief and gratitude. It felt like a stage set for a Stormers response driven by heart and heritage, with popular, veteran hooker Ntubeni poised for a fitting send-off after first donning the blue and white hoops in 2011.
Instead, Connacht turned the contest into a smash-and-grab raid, claiming their first ever win in Cape Town and climbing from ninth to sixth on the standings. The Stormers remain second, though the table now carries a sting.
The hosts appeared to have wrestled back control late in the second half when Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu powered over, nudging them ahead. The stadium stirred, the script seemingly restored.
Yet rugby can pivot in a heartbeat. From the restart, a costly error by replacement lock Ruben van Heerden handed Connacht a lifeline, and midfielder John Devine darted through to score, flipping momentum and pushing the visitors 26-24 ahead in the 71st minute.
From there, the Stormers chased the game with urgency that blurred into recklessness. In greasy conditions, their approach resembled a high-wire act in a storm, ambitious yet fragile. An intercept try by flyhalf Sean Naughton in the 77th minute sealed the upset, punishing another loose pass and hammering the final nail into the home side’s coffin.
Coach John Dobson did not sugar-coat the performance.
“You are 100% correct. Yes, it was very frustrating. We shovelled rubbish out there for quite a bit of time. We did … We did,” he admitted when asked about the tactical approach in the wet.
Dobson reflected on a week shaped by emotion and disruption.
“We can’t use Chippie’s thing as an excuse, but it was a helluva week. It’s almost like you don’t want to destroy everything because of this outcome. I think the 22 conversion is still a challenge.
“We had four goals for this game. One was our defence, the contestable game, the Stormers attack was not so good. The pick and go was good, but we didn’t convert nearly enough opportunities. Individuals must understand if we going to break the system, there will be consequences for us.”
His frustration centred on decision-making that strayed from the blueprint.
“We were loose throughout. There were a couple of patches in the first half that we spoke about where we shuffled it around too much.
“And secondly, there were some amazing stuff out there in the second half.
“We had their maul on the ropes, and at one instance we had a quick throw in to Warrick Gelant, but then Damian Willemse threw a forward pass, Connacht got the scrum and ended up scoring.
“I thought we were very loose. We said at halftime, let’s be more direct and limit the passing on attack.
“But we kept shovelling the ball back repeatedly and conceded a penalty for sealing off.
“It felt at times we needed to invent to beat them, when in reality the template was there to do it; we saw it with our mauling getting on top.”
Even a final attacking platform failed to yield reward.
“We had the last scrum, I know it’s their ball. We had a great tight five, and we didn’t move them a centimetre in a scrum we needed to win to get two points and we didn’t do that, so Connacht did well.”
Captain Ruhan Nel echoed the sentiment.
“I felt we did more than enough in that game to put ourselves in the correct positions.
“I felt we defended great at certain times and then there were just a lack of concentration due to simple decisions, which gave them either a penalty that led to an entry, or we scored points and conceded soon after.”
The defeat leaves the Stormers with no margin for error. Dobson labelled the upcoming clash with the Glasgow Warriors as “massive”.
“Massive…to get nothing out of this game is very disappointing,” he said.
“We now have to win all three to get where we want to be, but that’s much easier said than done.
“Glasgow and then two 4G matches away against two teams competing for the top eight.
“We’ve put ourselves in a bit of a position now.”
Next up are battles against Ulster and Cardiff on tour, fixtures that will test both nerve and execution.
Scorers
Stormers 24 (10)
Tries: Evan Roos, Nthuthuko Mchunu, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Conversions: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (3), Penalty: Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Connacht 33 (7)
Tries: Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle, John Devine, Ben Murphy, Sean Naughton, Conversions: Sam Gilbert (4)
