Stormers leave Scarlets behind

Two late tries from Yaqeen Ahmed saw the DHL Stormers secure a 52-40 win against Scarlets in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship encounter at DHL Stadium on Saturday.

It was an entertaining affair played in perfect conditions in Cape Town, with both teams showing plenty of attacking intent throughout.

It did not take long for the home side to hit their stride as a clever move at the front of a line-out in the 22 saw Zachary Porthen steam over in the corner.

They backed that up with a beauty as Haashim Pead found Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and got it back with a flick of the playmaker’s wrist to surge over for the second try.

Scarlets got on the scoreboard with a try from centre Joe Roberts but it did not take long for the Stormers to restore the 12-point advantage as Ntuthuko Mchunu gathered a loose ball to thunder through the defence.

The visitors kept pressing and had a second try from wing Ioan Jones but the Stormers had the bonus point wrapped up shortly afterwards as Seabelo Senatla finished after getting a long ball from Pead.

The home side had time for one more before half-time as replacement Deon Fourie scored from a maul to make it 33-14 at the break.

The Scarlets scored two quick tries at the start of the second half as wing Macs Page scored before Roberts grabbed an intercept for his second.

The Stormers had lost the likes of Andre-Hugo Venter, Hacjivah Dayimani, Deon Fourie and Seabelo Senatla to injury, so it was a replacement that scored next. Prop Olly Reid powered over from close range to make it 40-28 with 25 minutes left.

The Welsh side refused to go away and scored another two tries to bring themselves back level at 40-40 heading into the final 15 minutes.

Ahmed took both his opportunities well as first he scored under the poles before sealing the win with a late counter-attack.