Sport

[WATCH] SA Champions: Stormers win shield after late Ruhan Nel try snatches victory over Scarlets

Dudley Carstens|Published

SHIELD: Stormers are Mzansi’s beste in URC

Centre Ruhan Nel scored a try with the final move of the game to give the Stormers a 26-21 win over Scarlets on Saturday night.

Dit was so hittete for the Capetonians at Parcy Scarlets or they had to pack their backs for an away quarterfinal on the weekend of June 4, instead they will now host Scotland’s Edinburgh after finishing second on the overall log thanks to Nel’s late try.

Even without the five-pointer and the scores locked at 21-21, the Stormers would have done enough to win the first ever South Africa Shield in the tournament.

But that score made their road to the final so much easier.

PLEASED: Coach John Dobson

Recording their eighth win in a row, the Stormers would have paap’d after the first seven minutes with the hosts sprinting to a 10-0 lead after a penalty conversion and a chip kick from scrumhalf Gareth Davies was collected by captain Jonathan Davies, who fed it to centre partner Jonny Williams for the first try of the match. The Stormers hit back in the 14th minute when Hacjivah Dayimani broke the Scarlets line on the left wing before finding Leolin Zas who then beat the last defender (13-7).

After another Scarlets penalty, Stormers No.8 Evan Roos barged over from close quarters to make it 16-14 at the break.

Two minutes after the break, Nel gave the Stormers the lead for the first time in the match after he found space in the middle of the field on the Ospreys’s 22m line (21-16).

With nine minutes to play, Scarlets took the ball through a number of phases before wing Ryan Conbeer dotted down in the left corner (21-21).

The Stormers then chased the win and second place with all they had and ultimately got rewarded when Nel ran onto a drift pass from Warrick Gelant to sail over for the match-winning try in the 80th minute.

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