Steven Kitshoff emotional after standing ovation from 56 000 fans: 'It's tough to leave'

Outgoing Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff was left ruing what could have been as his farewell game ended in a 19-14 home loss to Munster in the URC final on Saturday night.

RECAP | Agony for Stormers as Munster win URC final 19-14

Kitshoff, who is set to leave the Stormers for Irish outfit Ulster, was hoping to bow out in style in front of the Cape Town Stadium faithful. 

When he was substituted in the 71st minute, the dream was still on with the Stormers leading 14-12 at that stage.

Kitshoff received a standing ovation from the 56 000-strong Cape Town Stadium crowd and the Stormers skipper admitted afterwards he was almost moved to tears in that moment.

"It's been an incredible honour. This union's been amazing for me. It's been through dark times, through good times. For me it's just a massive honour and to be playing in front of 56 000 people tonight was massive and getting the cheer [when I went off|, I almost cried 10 minutes before the game just to see everyone stand up and acknowledging [me]," Kitshoff said in the post-game press conference.

Kitshoff had to watch from the sidelines as Munster scored a late try to seal a memorable win - their first Championship success since the 2010/11 season.

Munster had completely dominated the first half but would not have been comfortable leading only 12-7 at the break.

The Stormers came out firing in the second stanza and largely dominated. But they also struggled to cash in on several opportunities before Munster snatched victory late on.

"It was definitely a game of two halves today, the first half we were scraping, trying to do everything we can to defend our line ... we were almost out on our feet ... and then in the second half I felt we were on top of them and they were scraping