DHL Stormers sink Force in Perth
The DHL Stormers beat the Western Force 22-3 in a wet Perth on Saturday to secure a home Vodacom Super Rugby play-off at DHL Newlands.
The bonus-point victory in terrible conditions means that the DHL Stormers take the honours in Africa Conference One, ahead of their final match of the regular season against the Southern Kings next week at DHL Newlands.
It was the third consecutive victory and ninth win this Vodacom Super Rugby season for coach Robbie Fleck’s team who made it two wins from two games on their tour to Australia.
The DHL Stormers made a promising start to the game, and asserted their dominance in the early set-pieces, but it would be the home side to score first when flyhalf Jono Lance slotted a penalty following a powerful driving maul.
The visitors were struck a further blow shortly afterwards when centre Dan du Plessis was shown a yellow card after colliding in the air with Marcel Brache and getting stretchered off the field.
Despite the Force dominating territory, the DHL Stormers defence held out well, and they did not concede any points while down to 14 men, with Huw Jones replacing the injured Du Plessis.
Having weathered a period of pressure the DHL Stormmers then took the game to their hosts and came up with two tries which gave them a commanding 15-3 lead at half-time.
Some good handsfrom both forwards and backs saw Kobus van Wyk cruise over for the first, before Siya Kolisi capped a period of pressure by powering over on the stroke of half-time.
After a tense start to the second half, the DHL Stormers started to assert some territorial dominance, which paid off when Jaco Taute put Van Wyk away for his second try in the corner, with the touchline conversion from Du Plessis taking their lead out to 22-3.
The Force threatened to take the bonus point away, but the DHL Stormers showed good defensive character to hold out and finished the game on the front foot, with Jones inches from scoring on the final whistle.
The scorers:
For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Van Wyk 2, Kolisi
Cons: Du Plessis 2
Pen: Du Plessis
For Western Force:
Pen: Lance
Teams:
DHL Stormers: 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Daniel du Plessis, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Schalk Burger (captain), 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Alistair Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 JP Smith, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Rynhardt Elstadt, 21 Louis Schreuder, 22 Huw Jones, 23 Scott van Breda.
Western Force: 15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Marcel Brache, 13 Ben Tapuai, 12 Kyle Godwin, 11 Luke Morahan (captain), 10 Jono Lance, 9 Ryan Louwrens, 8 Angus Cottrell, 7 Chris Alcock, 6 Richard Hardwick, 5 Rory Walton, 4 Ross Haylett-Petty, 3 Guy Millar, 2 Harry Scoble, 1 Pek Cowan.
Replacements: 16 Anaru Rangi, 17 Francois Van Wyk, 18 Jermaine Ainsley, 19 Matt Philip, 20 Brynard Stander, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Peter Grant, 23 Semisi Masirewa.
