Stormers see off Bulls to cement top spot in SA’s URC conference

Bulls v Stormers

• The Stormers saw off the Bulls 19-17 at the Cape Town Stadium to entrench their place at the top of the South African conference.
• The Stormers have also moved to fifth on the United Rugby Championship log.
• The Capetonians also recorded their second Derby win against the Bulls this season.

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In what was a North-South derby of narrow margins and high stakes, the Stormers were the fortunate 19-17 victors over the Bulls at a sunny Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

With the teams separated by a point and a place on the log with the tournament reaching the pointy end, the achieving of the result was the most important part and not how it was achieved.

The win meant the Stormers moved to 47 points and four points clear at the top of the South African conference, while also moving to fifth on the overall log.

Despite the perfect conditions, entertainment was far from being the premium, even though the tries scored by the sides were of the highest quality

RECAP | United Rugby Championship: Stormers v Bulls

There also was late drama in the game where Damian Willemse’s 71st-minute penalty was responded to with a 73rd-minute Ruan Nortje try that was eventually disallowed because of Hacjivah Dayimani’s high tackle on Kurt-Lee Arensde that saw the loose-forward being yellow-carded.

The Bulls did eventually score through Elrigh Louw a minute later, but those kinds of dramatic moments are part and parcel of fraught derbies.

Those two moments, plus the brilliant tries from Hacijvah Dayimani and Canan Moodie, were outliers in a game of close quarter entanglements that the forwards relished.

That the first points of the game came through Manie Libbok’s 15th-minute penalty spoke volumes of the tense nature of the fixture.

Chris Smith responded for the Bulls in the 27th minute, but on the stroke of half-time, just when the Bulls were on the cusp of scoring, they coughed up the ball.

The hosts moved the ball smartly through the phases, marched up the field, and three minutes after the half-time hooter, Dayimani cantered over for the game’s first try.

The Bulls required 11 minutes after the break to gain parity and they did so with some style. After Arendse made a smart catch from a high ball, the ball was shoveled quickly to  scrum-half Zak Burger.

He moved the ball to Cornal Hendricks, who put Moodie into space and the nippy winger beat his defenders to get on and score.

The game resumed its arm-wrestle status and when Willemse popped over his drop goal, the Stormers had a nine-point lead.

Louw’s try reduced the deficit to two points, but the Stormers ensured they played all the rugby in the Bulls’ half to secure the North/South Derby double.

Scorers:

Stormers: (10) 19

Try: Hacjivah Dayimani

Conversion: Manie Libbok

Penalties: Libbok (2)

Drop goal: Damian Willemse:

Bulls: (3) 17

Tries: Canan Moodie, Elrigh Louw

Conversions: Chris Smith, Morne Steyn

Penalty: Smith