DHL Stormers too strong for Jaguares
The DHL Stormers made it three consecutive wins with an impressive 35-8 bonus-point victory against the Jaguares at DHL Newlands on Friday.
They will now head on a four-week tour of Australasia full of confidence, having outscored the South Americans by four tries to one.
The visitors absorbed some early pressure from the DHL Stormers and struck first as some quick hands saw right wing Bautista Delguy score in the corner, with the touchline conversion going wide.
The DHL Stormers were on the scoreboard soon afterwards as SP Marais slotted the first of what would be three penalties in the first half.
The home side took the lead with a try which featured both Du Plessis cousins as flyhalf Jean-Luc’s attacking chip was collected by centre Dan who scored next to the poles.
Take the Dan du Plessis Quiz here
View JL du Plessis’ top 10 rugby passes of all time
The Jaguares responded with a penalty from flyhalf Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, but the DHL Stormers had seized the momentum and two more Marais penalties saw them go into the half-time break 16-8 up.
The DHL Stormers were crucially first to score in the second half, after stopping the Jaguares just short of the tryline, they marched them back and skipper Siya Kolisi peeled off a strong driving maul to score the second try.
The Jaguares threw absolutely everything at their hosts in search of a response and got within inches of the tryline again, but the DHL Stormers defence stood firm.
Another attacking line-out presented another opportunity and after a few phases it was scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies who threw a dummy next to a ruck to dart over.
That gave the DHL Stormers 20 minutes to look for another try which would secure them the bonus point and it eventually came from another powerful driving maul as replacement scrumhalf Justin Phillips got over to score in the corner.
The scorers:
For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Dan du Plessis, Kolisi, Jantjies, Phillips
Cons: Marais 2, Du Plessis
Pens: Marais 3
For Jaguares:
Try: Delguy
Pen: Bonilla
DHL Stormers: 15 Dillyn Leyds, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 SP Marais, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Justin Phillips, 22 Ruhan Nel, 23 Damian Willemse.
Jaguares: 15 Joaquín Tuculet (captain), 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Bautista Ezcurra, 11 Ramiro Moyano, 10 Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Javier Ortega Desio, 7 Tomas Lezana, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Santiago Medrano, 2 Julian Montoya, 1 Mayco Vivas.
Replacements: 16 Gaspar Baldunciel, 17 Santiago Garcia Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Juan Cruz Mallia, 23 Sebastian Cancelliere.
