The Emirates Lions secured a close 30-23 win over the visiting DHL Stormers at the Airline Emirates Park on Saturday afternoon. The Lions secured the win with three unanswered tries in the first half going into the second half with a 24-06 lead.
The Stormers dominated possession and territory during the first, however, with the Lions breaking away, Warrick Gelant was shown a yellow card that allowed Gianni Lombard to convert an easy penalty.
Jurie Matthee converted a penalty for the Stormers three minutes later to level the scores.
Three minutes later, the Lions spread the ball wide with a great skip pass by Gianni Lombard, which put Quan Horn into a gap. Horn made a quick inside pass to Morne van der Berg, who had an easy road to the tryline. Lombard converted to give the Lions a 10-03 lead.
From the kick-off, Quan Horn found plenty of space to tear the Stormers' defence apart. Horn fed van den Bergh on his inside who passed to Henco van Wyk who scored the Lions' second try. Lombard added the extra two to extend the Lions lead to 17-03.
Gelant returned to the pitch after ten minutes, which cost the Stormers fourteen points.
Jurie Matthee converted a penalty which cut the Lions' lead to 17-06 and ten minutes still to play in the first half.
Marius Louw scored the Lions' third try, following the Stormers not being able to control an Edwill van der Merwe kick ahead that extended the Lions' lead to 24-06, which was also the halftime score.
An incredible individual performance by Warrick Gelant led to the Stormers' first try when he cut through the defence of the Lions to run twenty-five meters to score the visitors' first try and cut the Lions' lead to 24-13 after just five minutes of play in the second half.
Gianni Lombard converted two penalties to extend the Lions' lead to 30-13 and twenty-five minutes still to play in the second half.
However, the Stormers set up camp in the Lions' half and sometimes only desperate defence by the Lions' kept them from scoring. Eventually, Evan Roos scored out wide to cut the Lions' lead to 30-20 and ten minutes to play.
The Stormers continued their onslaught but could only add a converted penalty to cut the Lions lead to 30-23, which was also the final score.
Scorers:
Emirates Lions: Tries: Morne van den Berg, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw. Conversions: Gianni Lombard (3). Penalties: Gianni Lombard (3).
DHL Stormers: Tries: Warrick Gelant, Evan Roos. Conversions: Jurie Matthee (2). Penalties: Jurie Matthee (3).
Teams:
Emirates Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Marius Louw, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Gianni Lombard, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Francke Horn (c), 7 Ruan Venter, 6 JC Pretorius, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Etienne Oosthuizen, 3 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Juan Schoeman. Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 SJ Kotze, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Jarod Cairns, 21 Nico Steyn, 22 Lubabalo Dobela, 23 Manuel Rass
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Ali Vermaak. Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Gary Porter, 20 Paul de Villiers, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jonathan Roche.
