Stormers reign at Loftus

The DHL Stormers returned to winning ways in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship with a 32-19 bonus point win against the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

It was a gutsy performance which saw them score four tries in their final URC derby of the season.

The opening exchanges were typically tense and while the home side enjoyed early territorial ascendency, they were unable to make it count as the Stormers defence held firm.

The visitors were reduced to 14 men when Adre Smith was shown a yellow card for a late tackle and the resulting penalty produced a penalty try, with Ben-Jason Dixon also sent to the sin bin for collapsing a maul.

Despite being down to 13 men, the Stormers hung in bravely and once they were back to 15 they struck immediately, as Damian Willemse waltzed through after running a great line.

The Stormers had two tries from Suleiman Hartzenberg disallowed as first he put a foot in touch and in the second instance received a forward pass from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

The flyhalf made no mistake from the kicking tee just before half-time, as he landed a penalty which gave his team a slender 10-7 advantage at the break.

The Stormers were first to score in the second half as a second penalty from Feinberg-Mngomezulu saw them double their lead.

They kept the pressure on and it paid off as Paul de Villiers surged over for a try from a powerful maul to make it 18-7.

They followed that up with a penalty try from another maul before the Bulls hit back with a try from scrumhalf Zak Burger against the run of play.

The Stormers wrapped up the bonus point when Hacjivah Dayimani showed incredible pace to chase down a kick ahead from Willemse to score.

The Bulls were last to score but it was little more than a consolation as the Stormers secured a comfortable win in the end.