Stormers scrape past Bulls & keep 41,000 on edges of their seats

More than 41,000 spectators were kept on the edges of their seats as the Stormers maintained their dominance of the South African Shield by withstanding a fierce Bulls challenge and winning 23-19 in their United Rugby Championship derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening.

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A snap drop-goal by flyhalf Manie Libbok in the 73^rd minute settled the outcome, although a crowd of 41 205, the biggest ever for a URC match in South Africa, were mostly willing the Bulls on to bash their way over the tryline in the dying minutes after they won a penalty in the last scrum of the match. But the Stormers won three key turnovers in the shadow of their poles.

The Bulls were dominant in the opening quarter of the match, enjoying 65% possession and racking up a comfortable 12-3 lead through four Chris Smith penalties by the 24^th minute. But the Stormers were able to unseat the home side from their position of control thanks to the instability of the Bulls scrum and their impatience on attack, tending to kick good attacking ball away too often.

The Stormers were in the lead, 13-12, at halftime as they caught the Bulls’ defence napping in the 28^th minute to score the only try of the match. Scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies threw a long pass out wide to eighthman Marcel Theunissen, who had an open road to the tryline and charged over to beat the belated cover-defence. Libbok added the other points through two penalties.

Category of dazzling

With steady drizzle falling in the second half, the action would not have fallen into the category of dazzling as neither side were at their best. But it was certainly thrilling action, tremendously hard-fought as these north/south derbies usually are.

And the Stormers showed their championship character as they scored first after the break, loose forward replacement Junior Pokomela crashing over from a ruck to round off a brilliant try that was started by centre Dan du Plessis’ counter-attack and continued through excellent runs down the right-hand touchline by wing Suleiman Hartzenburg and Theunissen.

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The Bulls showed plenty of pluck in the final quarter, but their attack was just not sharp enough to pierce a determined Stormers defence. They did manage to cross the tryline once, after a prolonged multiphase build-up by the forwards, followed by eighthman Elrigh Louw’s lovely chicken-wing offload to wing Sbu Nkosi, who marked his comeback to rugby by cutting back inside past the last defender and scoring a try.

Bulls – Try: Sbu Nkosi. Conversion: Morne Steyn. Penalties: Chris Smith (4).

Stormers – Tries: Marcel Theunissen, Junior Pokomela. Conversions: Manie Libbok (2). Penalties: Libbok (2). Drop goal: Libbok.