Coach John Dobson and his Stormers team came back from the dead to beat the Lions 33-30 at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Basically buried at 30-26 with regular playing time a thing of the past, Stormers fans had every right to believe that their team had just suffered their first defeat of the season.
The team, though, still had hope and after taking the ball through six phases, replacement flyhalf Jean-luc du Plessis flung it wide to wing Sergeal Petersen, who then found centre Ruhan Nel on his inside.
As the midfielder pointed his one finger to the heavens before diving over for the match-winning try, Ellis Park was stunned into silence.
In truth, the match could have gone either way and despite the dramatic ending, it wasn’t really the most exciting affair to watch as both teams made some unforced errors throughout the 80 minutes.
There were some bright sparks on the day, though.
One of them was the return of No.8 Juarno Augustus.
Starting his first match of the season after recovering from injury, Augustus needed only 12 minutes to make his impact felt when powering his way over the Lions tryline to give the Stormers a 7-3 lead after an earlier Elton Jantjies penalty conversion.
Seven minutes later, another player starting his first match of the season, Godlen Masimla, intercepted a Lions pass on the halfway line and showed great pace to sprint home for the Stormers’ second five-pointer (12-3).
DECENT OUTING: Godlen Masimla. Picture: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
The hosts, though, couldn’t afford to let the game slip away and held the ball for nine phases before fullback Andries Coetzee dotted down from close quarters (12-8).
Having become the first team to score against the Stormers this year, the Lions smelt blood and had their second five-pointer on the half-hour mark, with Jantjies giving a superb cross-kick into the hands of Courtnall Skosan (15-12).
Two converted penalties from the boot of Stormers flyhalf Damian Willemse made it 18-15 in favour of his team at the break.
The message at the break to the Stormers would have been to finish off their opponents and they set out to do that from the restart, scoring via Petersen after he got an inside pass from Augustus down the right touchline.
Another penalty conversion made it 26-15.
With 13 minutes left, Jantjies set up a thrilling final when he realised the Stormers’ defence weren’t set on the 22m line and pinned his ears back to run through a couple of forwards (26-22).
TOUGH BATTLE: Pieter-Steph du Toit. Picture: SAMUEL SHIVAMBU/BACKPAGEPIX
Ex-Boys High outside centre Manuel Rass then showed some great acceleration and offload skills with eight minutes to play to put Hacjivah Dayimani into space.
The Lion s loosie then found ex-Stormers centre Dan Kriel, who dotted down to make it 27-26.
When Jantjies added another penalty conversion, the Stormers look dead and buried at 30-26.
But they were then saved by the Nel…
Lions - Tries:
Andries Coetzee, Courtnall Skosan, Elton Jantjies and Dan Kriel; Conversions: Jantjies (2); Conversions: Jantjies (2).
Stormers - Tries:
Juarno Augustus, Godlen Masimla, Sergeal Petersen and Ruhan Nel; Conversions: Damian Willemse and Jean-Luc du Plessis; Penalties: Willemse (3).