Stormers survive Dragons test before pulling clear for United Rugby ...

The Stormers were made to work hard for their 44-21 bonus-point win over the Dragons but they got the job done in the United Rugby Championship clash on Friday.

Angelo Davids and replacement Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu both scored two tries for the fifth-placed visitors, with Evan Roos also touching down and Manie Libbok converting all five and adding three penalties.

Harri Keddie and Aaron Wainwright went over for Dragons, Angus O’Brien converting one, while Will Reed kicked three penalties.

Dragons, looking to claim only a fourth URC win of the season that would have lifted them out of the bottom two, began strongly with powerful bursts from Wainwright and Keddie putting their opponents on the back foot and they were rewarded when a penalty from Reed gave them an early lead.

The Stormers continued to struggle to gain a foothold in the match and backchat from a scrum penalty awarded against them cost a further 10 metres, giving the hosts an attacking lineout from where Keddie forced his way over.

Another scrum penalty then saw Reed launch a superbly-judged kick to secure a five-metre lineout and, with the Stormers conceding two more penalties in quick succession, Reed was able to extend his side’s lead to 11-0 with a simple kick.

Reset scrums were preventing any real flow to the game but the Stormers finally got on the scoreboard in the 31st minute from another penalty awarded in that area, with Libbok slotting over his penalty.

Three minutes later, the Stormers awoke from their slumber to score a splendid try.

Reed dropped an up-and-under and he was made to pay for his error when a pinpoint cross-field kick from Warrick Gelant saw Davids collect before displaying too much pace for Dragons’ cover defence.

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Libbok converted but his side still trailed 11-10 at the interval.

The visitors took the lead for the first time six minutes into the second half thanks to a second penalty from Libbok but that was soon nullified by a third successful kick from Reed.

Another scrum penalty saw Libbok again on target but Wainwright crashed over from close range, and O’Brien’s conversion gave Dragons a 21-16 lead going into the final quarter and a chance for an upset.

But the Stormers upped their game and relentless pressure ended with Davids squeezing over for his second try of the match in the 65th minute before the Dragons lost prop Rodrigo Martinez to the sin bin for repeated scrum infringements.

The Stormers took full advantage to put the game beyond their hosts, with Roos finishing off a driving lineout before Feinberg-Mngomezulu added two tries in quick succession to add the gloss.

Dragons: 15 Jordan Williams, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Steff Hughes (c), 12 Aneurin Owen, 11 Chris Hollis, 10 Will Reed, 9 Dane Blacker, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Harri Keddie, 6 Sean Lonsdale,5 George Nott, 4 Matthew Screech, 3 Chris Coleman, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Rhodri Jones
Replacements: 16 Brodie Coghlan, 17 Rodrigo Martinez, 18 Dmitri Arhip, 19 James Benjamin, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Morgan Lloyd, 22 Angus O’Brien, 23 Sio Tomkinson

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Angelo Davids, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (c), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Hacjivah Dayimani, 21 Stefan Ungerer, 22 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 23 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu

Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Maickel English (WRU), Gareth Newman (WRU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)

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