The DHL Stormers faced the Gallagher Premiership log-leaders, Northampton Sainst for the first time in a groundbreaking match, at the cinch Stadium at Franklin Garden on Saturday. The DHL Stormers won 29-45 a high-scoring match with a total of twelve tries scored.
Unfortunately, this exhibition match lost all its structure within minutes from the kick-off, with the bulk of the eleven tries scored from broken play. A match with a lot of running and kicking with the defence substandard.
The DHL Stormers started like a house on fire, however, a wild pass by Warrick Gelant was controlled by Will Glister who ran 40 meters to open the scoring for the host.
After 11 minutes of play, Wandisile Simelane collected his own grubber to score the DHL Stormers' first try to trail 05-07. This was followed 4 minutes later with a Keke Morabe try who turned over the ball and burst through the middle of a maul to run 50m to score under the poles.
The DHL Stormers continued to play an unstructured game and Junior Pokomela scored their third try following several "strategic" kicks which started in the DHL Stormers' half. The DHL Stormers led 19-07 after 25 minutes of play.
Juarno Augustus started the movement which saw Northampton Saints strike back almost immediately when Will Glister scored out wide to reduce the DHL Stormers lead to 19-14.
A simple quick tap try by Stefan Ungerer extended the DHL Stormers lead to 24-14 with two minutes to play in the first half. Northampton Saints were not done yet and attacked from the kick-off. Following several close attempts Burger Odendaal eventually crashed over to end the first half with the hosts trailing 19-26.
Despite setting up camp in the Northampton Saints 22m for most of the first 20 minutes of play the scoreboard remained unchanged before Jake Garside sprinted down the touchline to score Northampton Sainst fourth try.
A Suleiman Hartzenberg intercept led to a Connor Evans try, Evans running forty meters to score the Stormers' fifth try. This was followed by a mistake from the Northampton Saints on the DHL Stormers tryline that ended up with Hacjivah Dayimani scoring at the other side of the pitch to lead 38-24 with five minutes to play.
A minute later Sam Graham came through the middle of the lineout to score the Northampton Saints' fifth try of the match, however, the DHL Stormers stored the final try with the time up on the clock to win 45-29.
Scorers:
Northampton Saints: Tries: Will Glister (2), Burger Odendaal, Jake Garside, Sam Graham. Conversions: Charlie Savala (2), Geordie Irvine.
DHL Stormers: Tries: Wandisile Simelane, Keke Morabe, Junior Pokomela (2), Stefan Ungerer, Connor Evans, Hacjivah Dayimani. Conversions: Jurie Matthee (4).
Teams:
Northampton Saints: 15 Jake Garside, 14 Will Glister, 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Charlie Savala, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Lewis Ludlam (c), 6 Angus Scott-Young, 5 Chunya Munga, 4 Tom Lockett, 3 Trevor Davison, 2 Sam Matavesi, 1 Emmanuel Iyogun. Replacements: Robbie Smith, Tom Cruse, Alex Waller, Ethan Waller, Paul Hill, Temo Mayanavanua, Alex Moon, Geordie Irvine, Kayde Sylvester, Sam Graham, Tom James, Rory Hutchinson, Tom Seabrook, Ewan Baker, Alfie Garside.
DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Chris Hollis, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Junior Pokomela, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Gary Porter, 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Brok Harris (captain).
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Scarra Ntubeni, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Nama Xaba, 22 Marcel Theunissen, 23 Godlen Masimla, 24 Hacjivah Dayimani, 25 Damian Markus, 26 Suleiman Hartzenberg.
