The Stormers are yet to
concede a single point in this year’s Super Rugby tournament after beating the Bulls 13-0 at Newlands on Saturday.
Having also smashed the Hurricanes 27-0 the previous week, the Stormers have now gone back-to-back without conceding even as much as a single penalty
conversion.
By their own admission, they were lucky to have escaped without conceding in a fiercely-contested north-south derby on Saturday.
With their visitors dominating both territory (68 percent to the Bulls) and possession (58 percent), they forced the Stormers into making exactly 100 tackles - opposed to 75 made by the men from Pretoria.
With both teams making a total of 13 handling errors each, the derby was a stop-start affair.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/STOvBUL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#STOvBUL #iamastormer #dhldelivers
— DHL STORMERS (@THESTORMERS)
Still, it was the Stormers who turned their opportunities into points, despite leaving a few more on the field because of missed attempts at goal by flyhalf Damian Willemse.
The pivot did, however, convert his first shot at goal in the second minute after the Bulls were penalised for a high tackle.
The Stormers then had to wait until the 37th minute for their next score and this time it was a five-pointer coming via hooker Scarra Ntubeni off the back of a rolling maul.
GEE PAD: Cape captain Steven Kitshoff. Picture: RYAN WILKISKY/ BACKPAGEPIX
The failed conversion means the Stormers entered the break with a 8-0 lead.
They then had a lineout on the centre line 10 minutes after the break. And what followed was the move of the match, with forwards and backs involved in setting up left wing Seabelo Senatla.
After flank Jaco Coetzee took the ball up in the midfield, No.8 Johan du Toit offloaded to fullback Dillyn Leyds in the tackle.
LINEOUT YSTER: Chris van Zyl. Picture: RYAN WILKISKY/BACKPAGEPIX
Leyds then found Senatla, who raced in untouched to score in the left corner.
The missed conversion kept the score at 13-0 and despite the Bulls pushing hard for their first try of the tournament in the last 30 minutes, they simply couldn’t break the Stormers’ defence.