Cardiff's play-off hopes ended after gutting defeat

Cardiff's United Rugby Championship play-off hopes are over after a 34-24 defeat to the Stormers in Cape Town.

Tries from Danny Southworth, Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Harri Millard and Dafydd Hughes gave them hope of taking two bonus points in South Africa, but a last-gasp penalty from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu denied them a losing bonus point.

That left them relying on results elsewhere, but Edinburgh's emphatic win over Ulster meant there would be no top eight finish for Cardiff.

Matt Sherratt's side went into the final game of the season knowing that victory would seal their first-ever play-off appearance in the league.

However, it was the home side who struck first through winger Leolin Zas.

Cardiff found an immediate response, with prop Southworth crossing after a lovely decoy run from Taulupe Faletau.

The Stormers went back ahead, after Suleiman Hartzenberg stepped his way over.

Things got worse for Cardiff after try-scorer Southworth was dismissed for a high tackle on the half-hour mark - leaving Cardiff to face 50 minutes of season-defining rugby with 14 men.

Zas crossed for a second after stabbing forward a speculative kick that Cameron Winnett failed to deal with.

But, despite having considerably less possession and territory, Cardiff did get themselves back into the game shortly before half-time.

A lovely offload from Faletau created the space for Callum Sheedy to put across a cross-field kick for Hamer-Webb to latch onto.

Sheedy ran out of time to take the conversion, even without the presence of a shot clock in the stadium - despite there being an understanding before kick-off there would be one in place - which robbed Cardiff of two easy points in rather shambolic fashion.

The Stormers started the second-half in