DHL Stormers claim full house in Joburg

The DHL Stormers started their Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign with a bonus-point 35-33 win against Emirates Lions in Joburg.

In a game that saw nine tries scored at Emirates Airline Park, the DHL Stormers did enough to secure the win despite a fierce comeback from the Emirates Lions.

The home side were first to score when hooker PJ Botha forced his way over early-on, but those were to be their only points of the first half.

The DHL Stormers drew level through some individual brilliance from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who hacked a loose ball ahead and then showed off some remarkable football skills to control the ball with his foot and score.

There were penalties from Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Clayton Blommetjies to give them a six-point advantage and they kicked on from there.

Hooker Joseph Dweba peeled off the back of a powerful maul to crash over and scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies showed his pace and eye for the gap to burst through from the base of a ruck just before half-time.

That gave the DHL Stormers an imposing 27-7 advantage at half-time and they secured the bonus point early in the second half when Feinberg-Mngomezulu went over for his second try with an assist from Warrick Gelant.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu added another three with a penalty from his own half to make it 35-14, at which point the game shifted once again.

The Emirates Lions ran in four second-half tries to run the DHL Stormers close, but the visitors held out in the end to secure a bonus-point win.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2, Dweba, Jantjies
Cons: Blommetjies 3
Pens: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2, Blommetjies

For Emirates Lions:
Tries: Botha, Van Wyk, Venter, Van den Berg, Horne
Cons: Hendrikse 2, Nohamba 2

DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Clayton Blommetjies, 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 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Gary Porter, 20 Hacjivah Dayimani, 21 Willie Engelbrecht, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Ben Loader.