DHL Stormers take Dragons down

The DHL Stormers scored seven tries in their comfortable 48-12 victory against Dragons RFC at DHL Stadium on Saturday.

The bonus point win sees the DHL Stormers climb up to fifth on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship standings ahead of the final round before the play-offs next week.

The home side made a fast start as Wandisile Simelane broke the line and then stepped the last defender to score under the poles in the second minute.

The visitors defended resolutely, but the DHL Stormers eventually broke through again as the ball was shifted wide at pace. Hooker Joseph Dweba got his offload away at full tilt to Seabelo Senatla, who finished in the corner.

The DHL Stormers looked to have scored a third as Damian Willemse got over the line in his 100th game, but the try was disallowed and skipper Salmaan Moerat was shown a yellow card for a dangerous clean-out at an earlier ruck.

That saw the DHL Stormers take a 14-0 lead into the break, but the Dragons managed to get their first points early in the second half as No.8 Aaron Wainwright forced his way over.

The hosts responded with a penalty from Feinberg-Mngomezulu before they added a third try scored by scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer who was on hand to run it in after Marcel Theunissen had broken through from a stolen line-out.

The bonus point came soon after as Damian Willemse went through to score in his 100th DHL Stormers game.

The Dragons got one back as replacement scrumhalf Dane Blacker scored with 10 minutes to go, but the DHL Stormers responded straight away as Suleiman Hartzenberg raced over out wide.

There was still time for two more tries as the DHL Stormers finished in style, with Paul de Wet scoring before the match ended with Simelane’s second try.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Simelane 2, Senatla, Ungerer, Willemse, Hartzenberg, De Wet
Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3, Willemse
Pen: Feinberg-Mngomezulu

For Dragons RFC:
Tries: Wainwright, Blacker
Con: Evans

DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Marcel Theunissen, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Vernon Matongo.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Louw Nel, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Dan du Plessis, 23 Suleiman Hartzenberg.