DHL Stormers blow Leinster away
The DHL Stormers got back to winning ways in style with a 42-12 Vodacom United Rugby Championship win against Leinster at DHL Stadium on Saturday.
The bonus point win sees the DHL Stormers move up to fifth place on the standings, with just three rounds left before the play-offs.
The home side turned defence into attack early on as a loose ball was snapped up by Damian Willemse, who got it away to Ben Loader to race home from his own half.
The DHL Stormers scrum had early dominance and a series of penalties from the set-piece eventually saw Manie Libbok take his team into double figures with a sweet strike from the kicking tee.
He followed that up with two more penalties and the hosts made their dominance count as captain Salmaan Moerat forced his way over from close range on the stroke of half-time to send them into the break 23-0 up.
They wasted no time in adding to that tally in the second half as scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies sniped around a ruck and sprinted in to score from the 22.
Leinster responded with two quick tries from No.8 Max Deegan and wing Rob Russell to make it 30-12.
The DHL Stormers were struck a further blow when No.8 Evan Roos was shown a yellow card for repeated infringements from the team.
Despite that, the DHL Stormers did not concede any points when he was off the field and instead they were next to strike as a try from replacement loose forward Willie Engelbrecht sealed the bonus point.
The final blow came in the dying stages as fullback Warrick Gelant threw an outrageous dummy before going over in the corner for the fifth try to seal a comfortable win.
The scorers:
For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Loader, Moerat, Jantjies, Engelbrecht, Gelant
Cons: Libbok 4
Pens: Libbok 3
For Leinster:
Tries: Deegan, Russell
Con: Prendergast
DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Brok Harris.
Replacements: Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Hacjivah Dayimani, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Wandisile Simelane.
