The DHL Stormers stretched their unbeaten streak against the Vodacom Bulls in the United Rugby Championship to 7-0 after a hard-fought 26-20 win on Saturday night in Cape Town.
In a match played with pace and intensity, both teams had several periods of dominance changing hands. However, it was the DHL Stormers who led for most of the match to secure a famous win at the DHL Stadium.
Manie Libbok opened the scoring for the DHL Stormers with an early converted penalty, which he followed up with a drop-kick to extend the hosts' lead to 06-00 after 19 minutes of play.
The Vodacom Bulls struck back from the kick-off when Reinhardt Ludwig burst through the middle of a 5m lineout to score the first try of the match.
The blistering pace of Kurt-Lee Arendse was too much for Ruan Nel when Aendse followed up a grubber by Embrose Papier to score the Vodacom Bulls' second try to extend their lead to 10-06 after 16 minutes of play in the first half.
The DHL Stormers retook the lead following a further two penalties. Quickly after that, Deon Fourie broke straight down the middle offloading to Paul de Wet who put Jean-Luc du Plessis in the gap to score under the sticks to extend the DHL Stormers lead to 16-10.
An absorbing first 40 minutes came from the end with the DHL Stormers going into the second half leading 16-10.
Libbok converted his 3rd penalty early in the second half to open the scoring for the hosts.
The first 10 minutes of the second half was an arm wrestle, however, a great pass from Willie le Roux gave Canan Moodie enough space to score in the corner to reduce the hosts' lead to 2 points and 28 minutes to play.
Ruhan Nel scored a brilliant team try which started 40 meters back to extend the hosts' lead to 9 points and 20 minutes to play.
Chris Smith converted a penalty to reduce the DHL Stormers' lead to only 6 points and 8 minutes to play as both teams go all out at each other in the final minutes of the match.
The Vodacom Bulls dominated the final 5 minutes, however, it was the hosts who managed to hang on for a well-deserved 26-20 win.
Scorers:
DHL Stormers: Tries: Jean-Luc du Plessis, Ruhan Nel. Conversions: Manie Libbok (2). Penalties: Manie Libbok (3). Drop Goal: Manie Libbok.
Vodacom Bulls: Tries: Reinhardt Ludwig, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie. Conversion: Johan Goosen. Penalty: Chris Smith.
Teams
DHL Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie (c), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole. Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Keke Morabe, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Clayton Blommetjies.
Vodacom Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Stedman Gans, 12 David Kriel, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw (c), 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Reinhardt Ludwig, 4 Janko Swanepoel, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements: 16 Simphiwe Matanzima, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Deon Slabbert, 20 Mpilo Gumede, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Sebastian de Klerk.
