Stormers back on track

Fourie: First-half try

The Stormers bounced back from their first loss of the Super Rugby season by claiming a 33-19 win over the Lions in Johannesburg.

Danie Poolman and Jaque Fourie both scored first-half tries, while Johann Sadie added a third in the closing minutes of the match.

Warren Whiteley crossed for the hosts in a busy first 40 minutes, but the Lions could not make any major inroads in a much tighter second half.

The result sees the Stormers consolidate their position at the top of the South African conference with 33 points from their eight games so far.

The visitors opened the scoring on four minutes through Gary van Aswegen, who was only brought into the starting line-up on Thursday after a late injury to regular fly-half Peter Grant.

The Stormers continued to dominate early on and moved further ahead when Poolman dived over after good drives by Juan de Jongh and Schalk Burger.

Points

A fine 40-metre drop goal for Burton Francis got the visitors on the board but that was cancelled out when Lionel Cronje - an early replacement for Van Aswegen - slotted over a penalty.

Francis responded again with a penalty of his own but another three points from Cronje made it 16-6.

But the Lions sparked into life as a counter-attack saw Francis' clever pass collected by Whiteley, who scored under the posts.

Minutes later the Stormers were firmly back in control, though, as South Africa centre Fourie eased over the line to finish a move started by De Jongh's breakaway. Cronje added the extras to make it 23-13 at the interval.

Francis reduced the deficit after the restart with his second penalty but the Stormers added three points of their own 10 minutes later, although they were disappointed to see play pulled back when a try seemed on.

Francis then slotted over another penalty and the hosts were handed a further blow when skipper Doppies la Grange was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Fourie.

Cronje was off target with the penalty but Sadie's late converted try to ensured a seventh win of the campaign for the Stormers.