Cape Town — A last-gasp Ruhan Nel try sealed two bonus points for the Stormers but they failed to beat Munster losing 26-24 for the first time this season at the DHL Stadium on Saturday evening.
With the loss, the Stormers (63 points also failed to retake second place on the United Rugby Championship (URC) log after Ulster (64 points) leapfrogged them on Friday with a victory.
Now, their chances of securing a home semi-final in the play-offs of the URC look slim with one match left in the round-robin phase. Ulster, who play Edinburgh on Friday, will know by the start of their match what they have to do, to keep the second place ahead of the Stormers.
After saying they have to start quickly earlier in the week, because of how they were put under pressure in their Champions Cup loss to Exeter Chiefs, the defending URC champions again failed to get the early punch in the match.
Instead, Munster took a leaf out of Exeter's playbook when they put the home team under pressure from the kick-off.
And just like in the Exeter game, the Stormers found themselves down early on after the visitors went up 12-0.
Munster scored their first try after barely a minute's play and it put their opponents on the backfoot early on. The visitors were constantly on the front foot while keeping their opponents from getting any reward in the game.
Their second try came off a beautifully executed maul - a weapon they used time and again to get reward with Springbok lock RG Snyman playing a prominent role for his Irish club.
Snyman had a good showing and continues to go from strength to strength after his return from a long injury layoff. He secured possession in the lineout on every throw he received, while his play in the loose reminded of the Snyman of old.
He put some of his teammates in good space with his offloads in contact.
Snyman left the field with a knock to the head but looked fine when he returned to the Munster bench late in the game.
The Stormers' helter-skelter performance - they had bits and pieces where they looked excellent on the attack - will have to be curbed sooner rather than later ahead of the playoffs.
Their two tries shortly before halftime and Nel's at the death showed the fight the team possesses and that they can turn things around when the going gets tough.
But after having the ascendency going into halftime, they wasted opportunities to score more points at the start of the second forty.
Flyhalf Manie Libbok had good touches on the attack, but his kicking was below his standards.
He missed a couple of easy kicks in front of the goalposts that could have secured the win.
Then the Stormers' defence also needs to sharpen up.
Munster had plenty of chances out wide after beating the rush defence of the home side, with winger Suleiman Hartzenberg caught in-between attackers a couple of times.
And then the absence of fetcher Deon Fourie continues to haunt the home side.
Nel, scoring two tries on the night, had a good outing with his centre partner Dan du Plessis.
But all is not doom and gloom in the Stormers' camp. They have secured a home quarter-final and if they get a favour from Edinburgh on Friday, second place can still be attained.
Point-scorers
Stormers 24 — Tries: Frans Malherbe, Ruhan Nel (2), Steven Kitshoff. Conversions: Manie Libbok (2).
Munster 26 — Tries: Diarmuid Barron(2), Shane Daley, Gavin Coombes. Conversions: Jack Crowley, Ben Healy (2)
IOL Sport