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Stormers power to fifth with rout of Dragons

football10 May 2025 18:30| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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The DHL Stormers took another now seemingly inexorable step towards the Vodacom United Rugby Championship playoffs with a comprehensive 48-12 win over the Dragons in their penultimate league match at a wet DHL Stadium on Saturday.

The Stormers ran in seven tries to two and the bonus point ensured that they hit the 50 when it comes to points on the log which means they go into the final league game against Cardiff here next Friday in fifth position.

Had Damian kicked the difficult conversion to Wandisile Simelane’s second try after the hooter, it would have been the second game in succession where the half century mark would have been reached by the Stormers on the scoreboard.

Not that it always looked like turning out quite that one-sided.

The expectation was that the Stormers would run the Dragons, who foot the log by some distance, but weather is always a great leveller and that was the case again in this game as the Stormers took a while to get going before pulling away from their outgunned opponents in the second half.

Actually to say they took a while to get going might not seem completely accurate if you consider that the Stormers scored their first try just after the game had completed its first minute.

That was when a rolled pass off an attacking lineout went through the hands of flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and centre Simelane wrong footed the first line of opposition defenders before going over next to the uprights.

However, Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s successful conversion was the last Stormers score until the 36th minute as the hosts struggled with the execution of the kicking game that was demanded in the conditions.

Some might suggest Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked too much but the truth is that his execution was just poor as most of his kicks were too long and therefore allowed the Dragons to field with more comfort than the Stormers would have intended.

In that half hour period of drought the Stormers did come close to scoring, most noticeably when Marcel Theunissen, who was again a rampaging presence for the Stormers, wriggled through from close range but was held up over the line.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu was also wide with a long-range penalty.

The Stormers will have been encouraged with the way their scrum went on a night when Vernon Matongo was making his first start in the URC and they owed quite a bit of their field position to scrum penalties.

It had rained quite a bit during the day though, so the ball was slippery and it wasn’t a night for the kind of flash that buried Benetton here two weeks ago.

SOME FLASH CREATED THE SECOND TRY

There was some flash when eventually they did score their second try, with a kick from Simelane being chased back under pressure into the in-goal area by the Dragons, who kicked directly out but had the ever alert Feinberg-Mngomezulu take the ball beyond the touchline.

A quick throw-in saw the ball quickly transferred to the left to give wing Seabelo Senatla the opportunity to show his gymnastic skills as he dived over in the corner.

It should have been two tries in the space of two minutes as no sooner had Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted from the touchline than the Stormers were back at their flashy attacking best again, Feinberg-Mngomezulu again being a key figure in starting it before a bullocking charge from Joseph Dweba and Damian Willemse, playing his 100th game, was over in the same corner as Senatla had scored.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed the angled conversion to leave the score at 19-0 but it was to prove elementary as as the game was about to restart the TMO called the referee across to the big screen, where he decided that Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat had executed a croc-roll in the buildup to Willemse’s try.

So Moerat spent 10 minutes in the bin either side of halftime, which was taken with the Stormers leading 14-0.

WILLEMSE TRY BAGS BONUS POINT

Wales No 8 Aaron Wainwright capitalised on some early momentum at the start of the second half for the visitors by scoring a try that might have sent some brief flutters through the Stormers, but in truth the Dragons seldom really looked capable of firing any shots and order appeared to be restored when Feinberg-Mngomezulu got the scoreboard moving again with a penalty from close range.

Then one of Theunissen’s breaks through the middle drew profit for the Stormers as he found Stefan Ungerer free on the left flank and the scrumhalf ran in to score a try that put the game well out of reach from the Welsh team.

The bonus point try was scored by Willemse, making up for missing out earlier, as the ball was moved left from an attacking scrum in the middle of the field, and while the Dragons did score one more try of their own, it was all the Stormers after that as they finished off with a bit of dazzle to whet appetites for the Cardiff game, which is expected to be played in better conditions than tonight’s game was.

Scores

DHL Stormers 48 - Tries: Wandisile Simelane 2, Seabelo Senatla, Stefan Ungerer, Damian Willemse, Suleiman Hartzenberg and Paul de Wet; Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3 and Damian Willemse 2; Penalty: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Dragons 12 - Try: Aaron Wainwright, Dane Blacker; Conversion: Lloyd Evans.

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