Rugby
Stormers outclass Cavaliers
2012-01-21 17:31
Cape Town - The Stormers wrapped up their first
2012 Super Rugby warm-up match with a pleasing 45-14 win over neighbours
Boland Cavaliers in the sweltering heat at a packed Boland Stadium,
Wellington on Saturday.
Sound cover defence by Boland held out a
possible first-minute try by the Stormers but a rolling maul two minutes
later close to the tryline provided a platform for tighthead Frans
Malherbe to score.
Flyhalf Burton Francis, the former Bulls and Lions pivot, converted to give the Stormers a 7-0 lead.
Stormers
halfback Bolla Conradie was in fine nick at the base of the scrum and
after he sniped through the Boland defence for his try he set up a raid
which led to a penalty try for the Stormers, with Francis converting
both attempts for a 21-0 lead after 17 minutes of play.
Boland
staged a gallant fightback which saw them take play up to the Stormers
four times in a 16-minute passage of play. However, Boland could not
finish to claim reward for their efforts.
Four minutes ahead of
the break, the Stormers sprung a counter-attack from deep and following
superb handling as they swept downfield, right wing Danie Poolman scored
a converted try (28-0).
Boland managed to keep the ball alive
after the half-time hooter sounded and finally cracked the Stormers
defence as centre Jonathan Francke crashed over, with flyhalf Ricardo
Croy converting to take the first-half score to 28-7.
The hosts
started the second half with the same fervour as they displayed in the
closing stages with a second try in the 47th minute when eighthman and
captain Junior Bester dotted down and Croy adding the conversion
(28-14).
The Stormers made their first second-half foray into the Boland 22m area with a try by Rohan Kitshoff.
Substitute flyhalf Kurt Coleman hashed his conversion attempt (33-14).
As
both teams made wholesale substitutions the game lost a great deal of
momentum in the final 20 minutes as the replacements battled to strike
cohesion.
The Stormers, however, were mostly in control in the
final stages with eighthman Nizaam Carr crashing over in the 67th minute
with Coleman goaled for a 40-14 lead.
Towards the end the
Stormers upped the tempo as their game flourished with several late
hand-to-hand sorties, one of which resulted in an unconverted try by
replacement hooker Tiaan Liebenberg in the final minute.
Scorers:
Boland Cavaliers: Tries: Jonathan Francke and Junior Bester.
Conversions: Ricardo Croy (2).
Stormers:
Tries: Frans Malherbe, Bolla Conradie, penalty try, Danie Poolman,
Rohan Kitshoff, Nizaam Carr and Tiaan Liebenberg.
Conversions: Burton
Francis (4) and Kurt Coleman.