Stormers sparkle to down Dragons in Gqeberha

The Stormers mixed panache with power as they downed the Dragons 34-26 in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match in Gqeberha on Saturday.

They charmed at the back and clobbered up front to stretch their unbeaten home run to 15 matches across three venues.

Of concern however is the way they lost their shape and perhaps even purpose after they scored their bonus-point try in the first half.

The Dragons played with far greater resolve in the second half as the Stormers added only two penalties.

In the first half though they comprehensively outplayed the Dragons in a match in which they found more time and space than is perhaps ordinarily on offer in the URC, the hosts revelled in it.

New Bok Manie Libbok, the evergreen Clayton Blommetjies and the long of stride Tristan Leyds had the run of the place, often putting their team in positions of promise.

Libbok's recent time in exulted company has done wonders for his confidence, while Blommetjies was absolutely in his element and Leyds rose to the occasion in every way, especially contestable kicks.

A pack in the ascendancy though made it all possible.

Hacjivah Dayimani, Willie Engelbrecht and Neethling Fouche were part of an organised and disciplined forward unit that got the job done in the first half.

The Stormers profited against arguably the competition's most pliable scrum.

Another visually arresting sign of their forward dominance was the rolling maul which yielded two early tries.

The second arrived when Engelbrecht grabbed the line-out feed and he was soon cocooned by the rest of the pack as Joseph Dweba took up position at the back of the human caterpillar.

Their walk to the try line inside the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was a short one.

To be fair, the Stormers' spark came from the back.

Early on Blommetjies, a fullback perennially in search of opportunity to put himself front and centre, audaciously slipped his marker when he collected the ball close to the touchline just inside the Stormers' 22.

He evaded a second before offloading and though the move did not yield points it sparked the Stormers' aspirations to attack.

Lleyds provided the kindle for the Stormers' third try when he determinedly collected a high ball.

Later in the sweeping move Blommetjies teased the defence before a one-handed pass found Ruhan Nel who completed the formalities.

If that was a splendid team effort in the way the Stormers collectively exploited the wide open space, their bonus-point try stands as a tribute to the confidence, dash and dare of flyhalf Libbok.

By the time he received the ball the Stormers had advantage from a scrum penalty but he kept stepping off his left foot beating three defenders before sprinting for the line.

Dragons left wing Jordan Williams scored a long-range intercept try to stem them and turn the tide.

Scorers

Stormers (34) — Tries: Junior Pokomela, Joseph Dweba, Ruhan Nel. Manie Libbok. Conversions: Manie Libbok (3), Clayton Blommetjies. Penalties: Manie Libbok (2).

Dragons (26) — Tries: Jordan Williams, Aki Seiuli, JJ Hanrahan, Josh Reynolds. Conversions: Hanrahan (2), Will Reed.