DHL Stormers go down at the death in Cardiff

The DHL Stormers went down 31-24 with the last play of the match against Cardiff on Friday night.

In a pulsating Vodacom United Rugby Championship encounter, the home side claimed a dramatic win that went down to the last minute.

The DHL Stormers flew out of the blocks and took the game to the home side with a big scrum followed by a solid maul, which saw hooker Andre-Hugo Venter go over for the opening try.

They doubled their lead soon after when centre Ruhan Nel picked the ball up after another attacking maul and stepped past a few defenders to score.

Cardiff came back into the game with tries from replacement Gabriel Hamer Webb and captain Liam Belcher, but a penalty from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu saw the DHL Stormers take a 17-14 lead into the half-time break.

The DHL Stormers went to the bench early and it made an immediate impact as replacement Warick Gelant put Nel over for his second try.

Cardiff came back again however as a try from wing Ben Grady and a penalty from flyhalf Tinus de Beer levelled it up at 24-24 with 20 minutes left to play.

Cardiff scored in the last movement of the game through Rhys Litterick to take the win.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Venter, Nel 2
Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3
Pen: Feinberg-Mngomezulu

For Cardiff:
Tries: Hamer Webb, Belcher, Grady, Litterick
Cons: De Beer 4
Pen: De Beer

DHL Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Nama Xaba, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Brok Harris (captain).
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Hendre Stassen, 21 Keke Morabe, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Warrick Gelant.