Stormers' wingers dazzle in hard-fought URC win over Cardiff
The Stormers secured their place in the United Rugby Championship play-offs on Friday as they beat Cardiff 34-24 at Cape Town Stadium.
Leolin Zas opened the scoring for the home side after he collected an inside pass after coming in off his wing to streak away from the Cardiff defence and cross the whitewash.
Damian Willemse, however, couldn't convert, as the Stormers led 5-0 after 9 minutes.
Cardiff hit back minutes later as their early scrum dominance led to a converted try for prop Danny Southworth to give the visitors a 7-5 lead.
In the 23rd minute, the Stormers retook the lead after some individual brilliance from winger Suleiman Hartzenberg. Playing in his 50th game for the coastal franchise, Hartzenberg received the ball and cut inside twice as he left Cardiff defenders in his wake on the way to the tryline.
Willemse popped over an easy conversion for a 12-7 lead.
Cardiff were dealt a massive blow in the 28th minute when Southworth received his marching orders for a high hit on Neethling Fouche.
Zas added another try for the Stormers after Cardiff couldn't deal with a ball kicked into their dead ball area in the 33rd minute, and Willemse slotted the conversion from a difficult angle to push the home side's lead out to 19-7.
Cardiff would not lie down, and they scored next when winger Gabriel Hamer-Webb collected a pinpoint cross kick to score an unconverted try as the visitors cut the lead to 19-12 just before halftime.
The Stormers were first to score in the second half when Hartzenberg scored his second, collecting a cross-kick from Manie Libbok to go over in the right-hand corner.
While Willemse couldn't add the extras, the home side led 24-12 in the 47th minute.
Cardiff, to their credit, kept themselves in the game as they were next to score through Harri Millard, after some excellent handling worked space for the centre on the right, and his pace did the rest to cut the Stormers lead to 24-17.
The Stormers also lost Willemse to a red card for a high shot during the build-up to the try as both sides were now down to 14 men with 22 minutes left to play.
Connor Evans gave the Stormers some breathing space in the 72nd minute after Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu put him away after the replacement flyhalf had collected his own kick-ahead.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu added the conversion to give the Stormers a 31-17 lead.
Again, however, Cardiff hit right back when an effective rolling maul saw Dafydd Hughes crash over for a converted try as the score read 31-17 with three minutes left.
The Stormers wrapped up the points in the 79th minute as Feinberg-Mngomezulu slotted a penalty to ensure the win for John Dobson's charges.
The Stormers will now face either Glasgow Warriors or the Sharks away in the play-offs, depending on the Saturday's results.
Scorers
Stormers 34 (19)
Conversions: Damian Willemse (2), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
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