Stormers take down Bristol Bears

The DHL Stormers ran in seven tries at DHL Stadium to claim a 49-12 bonus point win in their Investec Champions Cup opener against Bristol Bears on Saturday.

Wing Leolin Zas and centre Jonny Roche both scored twice as the Cape side outclassed their English counterparts to start their campaign with a big win.

The home team started strong as Seabelo Senatla hit a gap in midfield and raced away to score in the corner.

Senatla was on-hand for the second try as well as he offloaded on the try line for Leolin Zas to score.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu landed both conversions from the touchline to make it 14-0.

The visitors responded with a try of their own by flank Joe Owen but the Stormers would have the final say in the first half as centre Roche scored after a link-up between Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse had created the space.

The Stormers were reduced to 14 when hooker JJ Kotze was shown a red card, which kept him on the sidelines for 20 minutes.

Despite that blow, the home side still took a comfortable 21-7 advantage into the half-time break.

The Stormers looked to have scored first in the second half when Cobus Reinach grabbed an intercept to race away but it was called back for a high tackle from Zas, who was shown a yellow card.

The visitors took their chance and scored a second but the response was immediate as Roche picked up a loose ball to run in his second try.

The touchline conversion from Feinberg-Mngomezulu made it 28-12, with the hosts still down a man.

Once back to full-strength, the Stormers took control, with tries from replacements Warrick Gelant and Andre-Hugo Venter before Zas grabbed his second at the death.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked all seven conversions to cap an impressive performance at home.