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Stormers surge up log with full house against Glasgow

rugby22 April 2022 19:00| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Evan Roos scored a try on the final whistle to ensure that it was a perfect night for the DHL Stormers as they took a full house of five log points from an impressive 32-7 destruction of Glasgow Warriors in their Vodacom United Rugby clash at DHL Stadium on Friday night.


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The Stormers already had the game well won before the No 8 dotted down but thanks to that try the Cape side are assured of still being at the top of the South African Shield at the end of this weekend’s round of matches.

And they also go two points ahead of Glasgow, who were in third place before the game started. So, for now at least, until Ulster and Munster meet in Belfast later on Friday evening, the Stormers are second on the overall log and likely to end the round in the top three at the very least.

The Stormers buried the Warriors with their offloading game in the second half but they didn’t start particularly well and struggled to make an early imprint on the game, with three lineouts going against the throw on a blustery evening.

Herschel Jantjies, so good in some of the Stormers’ earlier games, also held his team back with some indecisive play and some poor kicking.

However, once the Stormers' forwards took control and the home team’s counter-attacking game came together, the Springbok scrumhalf cooked too and it was he who rounded off the Stormers’ second-half try that effectively ended the game in as a contest in the 53rd minute.

It might sound weird to suggest that the score ended the contest, for it only took the Stormers into an 18-7 lead.

However, by then it was pretty clear that the Warriors, who did score the first try of the match through their No 8 Jack Dempsey, were unlikely to make up any kind of leeway against a team that was becoming consistently more dominant and which dominated them defensively.

Dempsey’s try came at the end of the first quarter as the visitors capitalised on a series of pick-an-goes. Flyhalf Ross Thomson kicked the conversion to make it 7-0 after Manie Libbok had missed one long-range early penalty attempt for the Stormers.

The Warriors’ kicking game was very effective at that point and the Stormers were struggling to get out of their half, a bit reminiscent of the recent game against Ulster.

But once the Stormers got a foothold with a 31st-minute penalty from Libbok and then began to get into the Warriors’ half, it was clear the balance of power was shifting substantially.

BLUNTING GLASGOW MAUL

The counter-attacking game the Stormers are becoming renowned for also started to come together, with the Warriors failing to live up to their promise of controlling the game to the extent that it would negate that Stormers strength.

It was after the half hour mark that the Stormers started taking control, with a cross run from Damian Willemse after 35 minutes, doubling back to the right hand side of the field as the Stormers played the penalty advantage, sending in centre Rikus Pretorius for the first try.

That put the Stormers into the lead for the first time at 10-7, but they added to that score with another Libbok penalty from in front of the posts to enable the hosts to take a 16-10 advantage to the break.

The Stormers played with the wind advantage in the first half and Glasgow, with the help of a penalty from the restart, and then a second, used the wind at their backs to play themselves into the Stormers 22 at the start of the second period.

But their challenge ended there, as the Stormers were effective at blunting their maul from the attacking lineout and pretty much from then on it was the Warriors who made most of the disciplinary infractions.

Warrick Gelant was on by then for Pretorius, with Willemse going to inside centre, and Gelant was a constant thorn to the Warriors attacking from fullback.

It was his pass after receiving a Glasgow clearance kick that sent Hacjivah Daymani free down the right touchline and the flanker’s inside pass then sent Jantjies in for the score.

Three minutes later from an attacking lineout, the Stormers took the play across the field and a dab little touch from Gelant, reversing a pass to Dayimani, sent wing Leolin Zas in at the corner for the team’s third try and a 25-7 lead.

It had been 25 unanswered points in the space of 25 minutes and with 24 minutes to play it looked like the fourth try, the bonus point try, was inevitable.

It did nearly come on a couple of occasions as the Stormers continued to dominate and dazzle the Warriors with their switches of attack and their offloading but desperate defence and small errors in finishing kept the hosts out until the last move of the game, with Roos swivelling over for the try that capped a great evening for the Cape team.

SCORES

DHL Stormers 32 - Tries: Rikus Pretorius, Herschel Jantjies, Leolin Zas and Evan Roos; Conversions: Manie Libbok 3; Penalties: Manie Libbok 2.

Glasgow Warriors 7 - Try: Jack Dempsey; Conversion: Ross Thomson.

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