The Stormers had two players - Seabelo Senatla and Willie Engelbrecht - red-carded in Saturday's 33-30 loss to the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium.
Yet, when the final whistle blew, the hosts had 15 men on the field to the 14 of the Sharks, who had lost Jeremy Ward to a late yellow card.
Under the new set of laws adopted in this Rainbow Cup, teams can replace players who have received a red card 20 minutes after the infringement.
It meant that the Stormers, who had Senatla sent off in just the 14th minute, did not have to spend the large majority of the contest a man down.
Under the more traditional laws, the Stormers would have had to play nearly 35 minutes with 13 men on the park following Engelbrecht's second yellow card early in the second half.
Had that been the case, the Sharks would surely have run away with the contest and the match would have effectively been decided with over half an hour still to play.
Still, Sharks mentor Sean Everitt gave the rule change the thumbs up after the match.
"Especially early in the game when you concede a red card, it's always going to be tough to try and make a spectacle out of the game," said Everitt.
"I don't think those players [Senatla and Engelbrecht] intentionally went in.
"With Seabelo Senatla, I don't think that was intentional from him. It was probably careless, and he'll learn from that. We know he's a good rugby player and he's not a malicious person at all.
"At the end of the day the rules are there and the fact that a team can make do and change on a red card after 20 minutes I think is a good idea in hindsight."
While pleased with the victory, Everitt was far from satisfied with how his side played on the day.
"We were obviously not happy with our performance tonight but we'll take the result and I think it's a sign of a good team when you don't play well and you still get the result," he said.
"We've got a lot to work on."
"We're a performance-driven team and that performance today was not what we would have hoped to deliver."
The Sharks are next in action when they host the Lions at Kings Park on Saturday.