DHL Stormers take Cardiff down
The DHL Stormers scored five tries to end the regular season with a 34-24 win against Cardiff at DHL Stadium on Friday night.
It was the fourth consecutive bonus point win at home for the DHL Stormers and sees them head into the quarterfinals in fifth place on the standings, with their opponents still to be determined.
The home side made a solid start and the ball was worked out to Leolin Zas, who broke the line to score.
Cardiff responded with a try from prop Danny Southworth and the conversion gave them the lead briefly before Suleiman Hartzenberg sliced through for a try in his 50th match.
The visitors were reduced to 14 for the rest of the game when Southworth was shown a red card for a high shot on Neethling Fouche and the DHL Stormers took advantage as Zas chased down a kick to score his second.
The Welsh side had the final say before half-time as wing Gabe Hamer-Webb caught a cross-kick to score, but the DHL Stormers still took a 19-12 advantage into the break.
Hartzenberg got his second early in the second half as he got on the end of a cross-kick to score in the corner, but Cardiff responded with a try from centre Harri Millard to stay in the hunt.
The DHL Stormers were struck a further blow when a TMO call saw Damian Willemse shown a red card for a dangerous tackle in the build-up to the try.
Despite that setback the hosts came up with a fifth try to make the game safe as Connor Evans took a pass from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu who had won a high ball just outside the 22.
Cardiff had the final say with a try from replacement hooker Dafydd Hughes but it was not enough for them as a late Feinberg-Mngomezulu sealed the win for the DHL Stormers.
The scorers:
For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Zas 2, Hartzenberg 2, Evans
Cons: Willemse 2, Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Pen: Feinberg-Mngomezulu
For Cardiff:
Tries: Southworth, Hamer-Webb, Millard, Hughes
Cons: Sheedy 2
DHL Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Louw Nel, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Neethling Fouché, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Vernon Matongo, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Paul de Villiers, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Ben Loader.
Cardiff: 15 Cam Winnett, 14 Josh Adams, 13 Harri Millard, 12 Ben Thomas, 11 Gabe Hamer-Webb, 10 Callum Sheedy, 9 Aled Davies; 1 Danny Southworth, 2 Evan Lloyd, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 4 Josh McNally (CAPT), 5 Teddy Williams, 6 Alun Lawrence, 7 Alex Mann, 8 Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: 16 Dafydd Hughes, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Rhys Litterick, 19 Rory Thornton, 20 James Botham, 21 Dan Thomas, 22 Johan Mulder, 23 Rory Jennings.
