Edinburgh Rugby's season on life support as Sean Everitt details what went wrong against Stormers

The capital club played far better than they had done in their 54-17 humiliation by the Lions a week earlier, but the outcome of this game in Cape Town was the same as it had been in Johannesburg: a defeat devoid of even the minuscule consolation of a losing bonus point or two.

Everitt accepted what has appeared obvious for some time: that his team’s hopes of reaching the URC play-offs are now almost certainly over, and that as a consequence they will need to win next Sunday’s Champions Cup last-16 tie at Leinster to keep a woebegone season alive.

“Your set piece needs to function to win games, and I thought we did for 60 minutes,” he said. “We always knew that the Stormers had a strong bench, and unfortunately they got the better of us at set-piece times. That's obviously where it went wrong in the last 15 minutes for us.

“But [I am ] proud of the effort that the guys put in, how they bounced back from last week. We did have some good counter-attack moments as well, but you've got to be able to win that aerial battle. I think they won that tonight, and that's why they won the game.

“We've got to understand that the chances of qualifying now are probably gone,” Everitt continued. “It's tough, because it was one of our goals to achieve top eight and play in the Champions Cup again.

“We're definitely not going to throw away this season. We know that next week we're probably playing Ireland, because they [Leinster] will have all their players back. One thing we have as well is international-quality players, and you saw that tonight. I thought Ewan Ashman was outstanding at hooker, and Pierre [Schoeman] did really well, as well as Boan Venter.”

Malelili Satala was also impressive at times, particularly under the high ball, but few others on either side stood out in an error-strewn first half. The Stormers missed two early penalty attempts and were also a man down for 10 minutes after Ntuthuko Mchunu was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on.

Once back on the field, however, the prop soon made a more positive contribution, laying on the scoring pass for Evan Roos. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu made it 7-0 with the conversion.

Just as the Stormers were threatening to add to their tally, James Lang intercepted a pass from inside his own five-metre line and ran the distance to touch down. Ross Thompson added the extras.

Winger Leolin Zas restored the South Africans’ lead after the break with an unconverted try. Edinburgh flanker Liam McConnell had a score chalked off for being ahead of Lang’s kick, but then Venter, not long on for Schoeman, plunged over for his team’s second.

Thompson converted to put Edinburgh in front for the first time, but that was as good as it got for the Scots as the home team finished powerfully. Mchunu ran in a score from the edge of the Edinburgh 22 to restore his team’s lead, Roos got his second after slicing through the defence all too easily, and finally Deon Fourie added a fifth try. Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s conversion - his fourth from five attempts - ended the match.