DHL Stormers complete the SA sweep

The DHL Stormers made it a clean sweep of the other South African teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship this season with a 29-23 win against the Cell C Sharks at DHL Stadium on Saturday.

They were made to work hard for the win as they were down to 13 men in the final stages, but the DHL Stormers did enough to clinch the full five log points.

The visitors struck first with a penalty from flyhalf Curwin Bosch, but the DHL Stormers responded with a try as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu took a great offload from Clayton Blommetjies to go over.

The Cell C Sharks edged in front with a second penalty from Bosch, but those were to be their last points of the first half, as the home side took control with two more tries.

The first was an intercept from flank Ben-Jason Dixon, who made a great read to snatch the ball in the 22 and canter over.

The second came off the back of a period of sustained pressure, as Blommetjies glided through a gap to score.

That gave the home side a 19-6 advantage at half-time, to the delight of the DHL Stadium crowd.

The bonus-point try came 13 minutes into the second half, with Angelo Davids getting on the end of a cross-kick from Libbok and grounding it despite slipping in the process.

The Cell C Sharks fought back well, scoring two tries of their own from wing Yaw Penxe and centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg to make it 26-18 heading into the last 15 minutes.

The DHL Stormers were down to 14 for the last 10 minutes after replacement prop Sazi Sandi was shown a yellow card for a cynical infringement.

Scrumhalf Grant Williams scored a third for the visitors and Seabelo was shown a yellow card for a trip, which meant the DHL Stormers had to finish the game with 13 men on the field.

That set up a tense finish, but the DHL Stormers had the final say with a late penalty from Libbok to seal the win.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Dixon, Blommetjies, Davids
Cons: Libbok 3
Pen: Libbok

For Cell C Sharks:
Tries: Penxe, Janse van Rensburg, Williams
Con: Bosch
Pens: Bosch 2

DHL Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 23 Suleiman Hartzenberg.

Cell C Sharks: Boeta Chamberlain, Werner Kok, Marnus Potgieter, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Aphelele Fassi, Curwin Bosch (captain), Grant Williams, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Vincent Tshituka, Henco Venter, Gerbrandt Grobler, Emile van Heerden, Hanro Jacobs, Fez Mbatha, Dian Bleuler. Replacements: Kerron van Vuuren, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Carlu Sadie, Lappies Labuschagne, James Venter, Phepsi Buthelezi, Cameron Wright, Yaw Penxe.