Wandisile Simelane Centre Wandisile Simelane charges through to score one of his two Stormers tries against the Dragons. Photo: BackpagePix
Image: BackpagePix
It wasn’t the prettiest game of rugby in the first half, but the Stormers turned on the magic in the second 40 to complete a comfortable 48-12 victory over the Dragons to secure their playoff spot in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
After scoring seven tries, like two weekends ago against Benetton, the Cape side jumped into fifth place on the official log.
With one game to go, they have their fate in their own hands to seal that position for a quarter-final.
On a muddy field, the home team was their own worst enemy at times in the opening 30 minutes trying to force plays that the conditions probably didn’t allow for initially.
Instead of building their innings to tear the Dragons’ defence down, it looked early on that they were trying to run them to pieces.
The early opening try probably aided in that though after Wandisile Simelane showed some nifty footwork to go over for his first score after barely a couple of minutes of play.
He capped off a brilliant game by scoring the final five-pointer of the match.
Centurion Damian Willemse, who scored on his debut back in 2017, got onto the score sheet in the second stanza to cap off his 100th match with a good display. He also kicked two conversions.
He was denied a first-half try after a dubious yellow card to captain Salmaan Moerat in the build-up to it.
That try of Simelane may have come too easy for the home side because, for the next 30 minutes of the half, they struggled to get back on the scoreboard as they made mistake after mistake trying to force the issue on the attack.
If it wasn’t kicks from flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu that went aimless up into the night sky, it was their hot-potato passing that got them into trouble a couple of times.
The Stormers’ scrum had the better of the Dragons the entire night, but even after receiving a warning in the first half, referee Andrea Piardi never once went to his pocket.
This was despite them continuing to go backwards in the second half.
While the game was sealed in the 49th minute already after scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer scored a breakaway try thanks to the hardworking Marcel Theunnissen after a lineout steal by lock Ruben van Heerden, the home team turned on the magic with three tries in the final 10 minutes.
Replacement backs Suleiman Hartzenberg and Paul de Wet joined Willmse, Ungerer and Simelane on the try-scoring list after some perfectly executed Stormers rugby that the Dragons could not stop.
It was the perfect ending for the almost 14,000 spectators that braved the Cape Town cold to watch their team in action.
Afterwards, the two teams celebrated Brok Harris, the most-capped Stormers and Western Province player and a former Dragons stalwart, after he announced his retirement due to a serious knee injury earlier.
Points-Scorers
Stormers 48 (14): Tries: Wandisile Simelane (2), Seabeo Senatla, Stefan Ungerer, Damian Willemse, Suleiman Hartzenberg, Paul de Wet. Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (3), Damian Willemse (2). Penalty: Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Dragons 12 (0): tries: Aarn Wrainwright, Dane Blacker. Conversion: Lloyd Evans.
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