DHL Stormers come short at DHL Stadium

The DHL Stormers scored three tries, but went down 37-19 in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match against the Emirates Lions at DHL Stadium on Saturday.

It was a frustrating outing for the home side, playing in front of the Faithful for the first time in over 18 months.

The match was a stop-start affair, with five yellow cards in total and the DHL Stormers battled to find the rhythm they needed.

The visitors came up with the opening try as No.8 Francke Horne took a great inside ball from Vincent Tshituka to score.

The DHL Stormers were down to 14 straight afterwards as captain Salmaan Moerat was shown a yellow card for making contact in the air from the restart.

The Emirates Lions stretched their lead to 10-0 with a penalty from Fred Zeilinga before the Johannesburg side were shown two yellow cards of their own.

First Willem Alberts was off for a high shot on Evan Roos and he was followed by Edwill van der Merwe who pulled at Seabelo Senatla’s hair.

The DHL Stormers responded with a try of their own as scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer finished off a well-worked move down the blindside.

The home side were in front for the first time in the match when Senatla finished their second try, which saw them come from their own half with great interplay between forwards and backs.

The Emirates Lions had the final say in the first half however, with a Zeilinga penalty giving them a one-point advantage at half-time.

The visitors scored first in the second half, with scrumhalf Andre Warner finishing their second try to take their lead out to eight points.

They took that out to 15 when Tshituka went over for their third try. The DHL Stormers tried manfully to respond and camped in the 22 for an extended period, but could not land the killer blow and were down to 14 again when Rikus Pretorius was shown yellow after an attempted intercept.

The DHL Stormers eventually got over for their third try, with replacement hooker Andre-Hugo Venter forcing his way over, but the visitors had the final say as Horne crossed for his second to seal the win.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Ungerer, Senatla
Con: Libbok

For Emirates Lions:
Tries: Horne 2, Warner, Tshituka
Pens: Zeilinga 3
Cons: Zeilinga 4

DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Rikus Pretorius, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Brok Harris.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Ernst van Rhyn, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Tim Swiel, 23 Tristan Leyds.

Emirates Lions: EW Viljoen, Edwill van der Merwe, Wandisile Simelane, Burger Odendaal (capt), Rabz Maxwane; Fred Zeilinga, Andre Warner, Francke Horn, Vincent Tshituka, Jaco Kriel, Reinhard Nothnagel, Rubel Schoeman, Carlu Sadie, Jaco Visagie, Sti Sithole.
Replacements: PJ Botha, Morgan Naude, Jannie du Plessis, Willem Alberts, Ruhan Straeuli, Morne van der Berg, Matt Nore, Tiaan Swanepoel.