DRAGONS SLAYED

THE Stormers overcame a scrappy first half to klap the Dragons 48-12 at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday, securing a United Rugby Championship playoff spot.

Despite a muddy pitch and early errors, Wandisile Simelane’s early try and later score ended a standout performance.

Damian Willemse celebrated his 100th game with a try and two conversions, while Stefan Ungerer’s breakaway score sealed the game by the 49th minute.

The Stormers then dazzled with three late tries from Suleiman Hartzenberg, Paul de Wet, and Simelane as nearly 14 000 mense braved the cold in Cape Town, capping off a night of celebration with a tribute to retiring veteran Brok Harris, the Stormers’ most-capped player, who also played for the Dragons.

Stormers coach John Dobson gave his manne a pass rate after the game as they sit fifth on the standings. 

Dobson says: “Overall, we did what we wanted to do in terms of maintaining some elements of our gameplay against Benetton [a couple of weeks ago].

“It was always going to be trickier in a game like this with the (wet) conditions and the opposition. So, I’m happy we kept that standard around the small stuff like our breakdown reaction or maul defence, that was good and I am really happy with the performance in general.

“The problem in the first half was seven scrum put-ins to them through forced balls in the wrong areas. That is something we spoke about ahead of the start of the game. The second half was basically a copy of how we played against Benneton. We trapped them in their half and we started dominating towards the end of the first half.

“I didn’t see a lack of intensity out there. That was important to us.”