Made to work: Stormers hold off hungry Lions to remain unbeaten
Related links
Teams
Also see
The Stormers maintained their unbeaten start to the season by repelling a Lions fightback to secure a 24-19 victory in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The win takes the men from Cape Town top of the overall standings and remain the only team in the competition undefeated.
In a tale of two halves, the Stormers raced to an 18-0 lead thanks to two well-taken tries to hooker Tiaan Liebenberg (playing in his 50th Super Rugby game) and wing Bryan Habana (scoring his 50th Super Rugby try).
Full-back Joe Pietersen was on target from the tee, contributing a conversion as well as two penalties and it looked like the Lions were in for a long day at the office.
However, John Mitchell's pride weren't prepared to roll over so easily and started to find their rhythm in the second quarter of the match as Butch James converted a Tian Meyer try to take his team into the break 18-7 down.
The Lions continued to claw their way back in the second forty with James's boot cutting the Stormers lead down to just two points (18-16) before the visitors pulled away in the last few minutes of the match with another two more penalties from Pieterson.
The Lions, who dominated all the territory and possession for 60 minutes of the match, did manage to bag themselves a consolation losing bonus point thanks to a drop-goal by wing Andries Coetzee on full-time.
The scorers:
For Lions:
Try: Meyer
Con: James
Pens: James 3
Drop: Coetzee
For Stormers:
Tries: Liebenberg, Habana
Con: Pietersen
Pens: Pietersen 3
Lions: 15 James Kamana, 14 Deon van Rensburg, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Doppies la Grange, 11 Andries Coetzee, 10 Butch James, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Warren Whiteley, 7 Joshua Strauss (c), 6 Derick Minnie, 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Marius Coetzer, 3 Patric Cilliers, 2 Callie Visagie, 1 Caylib Oosthuizen.
Replacements: 16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Jacobie Adriaanse, 18 Stephan Greeff, 19 Cobus Grobbelaar, 20 Ross Cronje, 21 Michael Killian, 22 Ruan Combrinck.
Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean De Villiers (c), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Nick Koster, 7 Duane Vermeulen, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nizaam Carr, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Gary van Aswegen, 22 Gerhard van den Heever.
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Comments
4rugby says...
@ IslandPower I'm a Lions supporter and really like James Kamana, why do you think we hate him? Two year's ago he was a godsend because we had no fullback of value due to the Sharks and the Stormers snatching up the Lions Fullbacks. Now with Taute it's nice to have Kamana as a Wing or backup Fullback. Make some time to watch Kamana, I think we still haven't seen his full potential in Super Rugby. I will be a fan of his in any team.
Posted 00:26 26th March 2012
spliffed says...
Stormers cant play that badly again and hope to win the title. Agree about the Lions playing like that agains the Kiwis and Aussies.. Derby fever perhaps? But as a Stormers fan it's good to see the lions raise their game, now do it against the Kiwis and Aussies
Posted 04:29 25th March 2012
JayStarr says...
@ jackblack & people using the word "lucky" to describe the Stormers' win:
The Stormers did not play to their potential... They were plain poor in some areas of their game. They definitely took their foot off the pedal... and the Lions certainly played brilliant rugby...
But to say the Stormers "didn't deserve" to win, or were "lucky" is utter nonsense. There is nothing lucky about making over 100 tackles and hardly missing any of them! That is plain gut-busting hard work. Their defensive effort was IMMENSE - one of the best I've ever seen. They scored two great tries, kicked their goals and managed to hold out against MASSIVE pressure from the Lions with defense of the highest order...
End of.
Well done Stormers, tough luck Lions.
I hope this was the wake-up call the Stormers needed... And I sincerely hope the Lions can start playing like this against non-South African sides for a change!
Posted 20:30 24th March 2012
jackblack says...
Can't believe the Stormers won that game - they certainly didn't deserve to. They're going to have to raise their game massively against the Bulls next week!!!
Posted 19:13 24th March 2012