Habana whips up a Storm

Bryan Habana returned to haunt his former club the Bulls by scoring a decisive try that enabled the Stormers to make it four wins from four with a 23-13 victory in Pretoria.

The South Africa winger crossed the line with 10 minutes to go in a tight game, albeit one dominated by the men from Cape Town, to condemn the defending champions to a second successive home loss.

In a repeat of last season's final, Peter Grant also kicked 18 points to outshine his Springbok counterpart Morne Steyn, who had a rare off night for the hosts.

Apart from a late Bjorn Basson try, the first half was mainly a battle of the boot between the two number 10s.

The Bulls were penalised during the early exchanges after a powerful scrum first up by the Stormers with Grant slotting over for the Capetonians.

Steyn had the chance for an instant reply, but his kick from 56 metres went narrowly wide.

Penalised

Two further penalties - one for obstruction and the other for illegal infringement - allowed Grant to extend the lead to six and it took 30 minutes for the home side to get their next chance on goal, which Steyn converted after the visitors failed to roll away in a ruck.

Grant then missed his first kick of the evening, arguably the easiest of the four up to that point, but found his range again when Deon Stegmann was offside.

Two minutes before the break, Loftus Versfeld came alive thanks to a cracking show of pace from Basson.

The speedy winger collected the ball in his own half, ran 30 metres and then chipped forward before Habana fumbled allowing Basson to pounce in the left corner.

Steyn added the conversion to see his side into the break 10-12 behind.

After the resumption Steyn struck the upright for a rare second miss of the evening as the Bulls began to up the tempo.

But they soon returned to their first-half habit of conceding needless penalties and were punished by Grant - the fly-half sending over three points after the Bulls were offside at the line-out.

He missed his next chance to stretch the lead moments later, but Victor Matfield was adjudged offside soon after allowing Grant to successfully redeem himself.

Wasteful

Steyn kept the defending champions in the game after the Stormers were penalised for collapsing a maul.

He then continued a disappointing performance by missing for the third time in six attempts.

Habana, who joined the Stormers at the start of the 2010 season and was given a tough time by the home crowd for most of the game, responded emphatically with a 45th Super Rugby try.

Dewaldt Duvenhage was the provider as his kick ahead was excellently chased down by Habana, under pressure by Basson.

Grant missed the conversion and then hooked a penalty wastefully wide, but it mattered little as the Stormers held on.