Stormers finish strong against Rebels

It may have been a scrappy affair in the first half but a strong second half showing helped the Cape franchise outscore their hosts, who managed four tries of their own.

The Stormers regained possession from the kick-off and kept the Rebels in their own 22. They were rewarded for their pressure as the Rebels were caught offside and registered the first points through the boot of Jean-Luc du Plessis.

The Rebels hit back when Ben Meehan shifted the ball to Jack Debreczeni. The flyhalf made a nice break and gave a flat pass to Sefa Naivalu, who ran passed two defenders to score the first try of the match. Debreczeni made no mistake with the extras, giving the home side a 7-3 lead in the 10th minute.

JL Du Plessis brought the Stormers back to within a point through a second successful penalty.

Rebels' second try was scored through a turnover, the Stormers kept the ball up but failed to look at the Ben Meehan. The slick scrumhalf opted to go down the blindside and scored in the corner. Debreczeni added the extras and the Rebels led 14-6.

The Stormers grabbed a try of their own soon after, in a somewhat fortunate fashion. JL du Plessis placed a cross kick intended for Daniel du Plessis, the bounce of the ball favoured JL du Plessis though and the flyhalf grabbed the score before converting his own try.

In the 27th minute, the Rebels' scrum gave away another penalty and JL du Plessis stepped up and slotted it over to hand the visitors a 16-14 lead.

The Stormers' second try was not far off as prop Vincent Koch  bashed his way over, following a dominant rolling maul. JL du Plessis had no problem converting the easy kick and extended the lead to 23-14 in the 33rd minute.

Debreczeni punished the Stormers with a late penalty of his own to trail the Stormers 17-23 at the break.

The Rebels placed an enormous amount of pressure on the Stormers in the opening minutes of the second half and found reward through a Jonah Placid try. Neat interplay between several Rebels players saw the wing go over. Debreczeni adds the extras to hand the Rebels a 24-23 lead.

JL du Plessis' boot regained the lead for the Stormers with another successful penalty. That lead was stretched when Eben Etzebeth bashed his over the line following a powerful maul. 31-24 to the Stormers.

The Rebels hit back in the 59th minute as a lapse in concentration by the Stormers allowed Jack English to break through a massive gap. His offload found Debreczeni who grabs a try under the poles. Debreczeni added the easy kick to level matters at 31-31.

There was bound to be some tensions and Scott Fuglistaller was given his marching orders for collapsing a Stormers maul on the Rebels' five meter line. From the resulting scrum, Schalk Burger broke off the back before giving a little pass to Nic Groom, who gave his team a 36-31 lead again.

Just minutes later, Sikhumbuzo Notshe made a huge difference with a nice line break, before being brought down on the Rebels' 10 meter line. He offloaded to Damian de Allende, who got his name on the scoresheet. JL du Plessis' conversion ensured the lead was stretched to 43-31 with 10 minutes remaining.

With less than five minutes to go, Leolin Zas picked up a poor Rebels pass on the Stormers' 10 meter line. The young wing then ran in unopposed to grab the Stormers' sixth try. JL du Plessis' easy conversion brought up 50 points for the visitors.

The Stormers secured their bonus point after the final hooter when replacement hooker Siyabonga Ntubeni benefitted from another successful maul. JL du Plessis brought the match to an end with a successful conversion from the sideline.

Man of the Match: Tom English proved difficult to handle after making plenty of line breaks while Jack Debreczeni was central to his team's attacks. Eben Etzebeth was his big, bruising self. However, the young Jean-Luc du Plessis put in another high quality performance and gets our nod.

Scorers:

For Rebels:

Tries: Naivalu, Meehan, Placid, Debreczeni

Cons: Debreczeni 4

Pen: Debreczeni

For Stormers:

Tries: JL du Plessis, Koch,  Etzebeth, Groom, de Allende, Zas, Ntubeni

Cons: JL du Plessis 5

Pens: JL du Plessis 4

Teams:

Melbourne Rebels: 15 Mike Harris, 14 Jonah Placid, 13 Sefa Naivalu, 12 Reece Hodge, 11 Tom English, 10 Jack Debreczeni, 9 Ben Meehan, 8 Colby Fainga'a, 7 Sean McMahon (captain), 6 Jordy Reid, 5 Lopeti Timani, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Toby Smith, 2 James Hanson, 1 Cruze Ah Nau.

Replacements: 16 Pat Leafa, 17 Tom Moloney, 18 Laurie Weeks, 19 Culum Retallick, 20 Adam Thomson, 21 Mick Snowden, 22 Mitch Inman, 23 Paul Asquith.

Stormers: 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Daniel du Plessis, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Nic Groom, 8 Schalk Burger (captain), 7 Siyamthanda Kolisi, 6 Nizaam Carr, 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Oliver Kebble.

Replacements: 16 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 JP Smith, 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Rynhardt Elstadt, 21 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 22 Louis Schreuder, 23 Scott van Breda.

Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)

Assistant referees: Nic Berry (Australia), Amy Perrett (Australia)

TMO: Ian Smith (Australia)