Cape Town — Despite two yellow cards, the Stormers stretched their winning streak at home to five in a row after defeating Ospreys 29-13 in their United Rugby Championship meeting at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.
The home side outplayed the top-ranked Welsh side after also bagging three consecutive wins against European opposition in Ulster, Zebre Parma, and Cardiff Blues.
It was a strong start by John Dobson’s side as they jumped out the starting blocks and — unlike last week against Ulster — they didn’t fade away in the second stanza.
The hosts scored four tries to one in a display that showed their impressive upward curve in the competition.
The interplay the Stormers showed was a standout and they sprinkled that with easy-on-the-eye fluidity on attack as they continued to let the ball do the work.
While the visitors got on the scoreboard first with a penalty conversion by Gareth Anscombe in the second minute, the Stormers brought proper points onto the scoresheet as soon as they got into opposition 22 with an early try.
Flyhalf Manie Libbok set up his halfback partner Paul de Wet for the opener and converted it as well to take the score to 7-3.
It didn’t take them long to get their second, with lock Adre Smith going over after some superb work by the unmissable Evan Roos and top interplay overall. Libbok hit his target with this one again to go 14-3 up.
Anscombe narrowed the margin to eight points at the end of the opening quarter (14-6), but the guys in blue and white produced another stunner when Leolin Zas beautifully combined power and pace to make quick work of the defenders in his way and run in their third try (19-6) around the half-hour mark.
Leolin Zas produces a thing of beauty for the DHL Stormers as they comfortably see off Ospreys 29-13 in the Vodacom #URC 🔵 pic.twitter.com/0Qv3tOfQOG
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 2, 2022
Libbok — who put in a huge shift on the day — gave the Stormers a 16-point lead just before half-time to give them a healthy lead before going into the shed (22-6).
It was a more composed performance from the visitors at the start of the second half, but inaccuracies and very basic errors crept in again and the Stormers grabbed their bonus-point try in the 55th minute when Zas bagged his brace to take their points tally to 29.
With the Stormers having been shown yellow in the 67th and 72nd minute — to Zas and Libbok, no less — defence was always going to be a massive factor.
While the Stormers were still one man down, Ospreys finally got a try when replacement back Max Nagy got a try at the death, but it proved only consolation as the Cape side were just too good.
The Stormers next take on the Bulls at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. Following that, they have a bye, before taking on Glasgow and Leinster. The two fixtures will conclude the Capetonians home leg of the competition as the business end of the URC approaches.
Point-scorers
Stormers 29 – Tries: Paul de Wet, Adre Smith, Leolin Zas (2) Conversions: Manie Libbok (3) Penalties: Libbok
Ospreys 13 – Try: Max Nagy Conversion: Gareth Anscombe Penalties: Gareth Anscombe (2)
IOL Sport