Stormers still unbeaten at home
The men from Cape Town outscored their rivals from Pretoria by four tries to two in a dominant 29-17 win.
Their bullying tactics worked to perfection, even if it did cost them a man in the sin bin for 10 minutes.
The Stormers took the game to the visitors from the outset, surging into Bulls territory from the word go.
The first scrum saw the Stormers forwards shove the Bulls off the ball before it was spun out to flyhalf Damian Willemse who showed good pace to outstrip the cover defence for the opening try.
Willemse's conversion from out wide made it 7-0, to the delight of the Newlands faithful, but the Stormers were not done there.
They kept hammering away at the Bulls' defence and it was prop Wilco Louw who eventually found a way through to score in the corner and put his side 12-0 up.
The visitors had to find a way back into the game and it would come through lock Lodewyk de Jager who broke through in the 22 to score.
A yellow card for Stormers hooker Ramone Samuels for a late tackle gave the Bulls another scoring opportunity, with flyhalf Handre Pollard kicking the resultant penalty.
That saw the Stormers go into half-time with a slender 12-10 lead after a hard-hitting opening 40 minutes, with it all to play for in the second half.
The Bulls took the lead for the first time in the match with a try from flank Jason Jenkins early in the second half, but they did not have it for long as the Stormers responded immediately.
The ball was worked out to Damian de Allende who dummied his way through a gap before offloading to SP Marais who scored the third try.
Marais was on the scoresheet again shortly afterwards through a long-range penalty, which took the Stormers lead out to 22-17 with 25 minutes left to play.
The Stormers kept the pressure on and it paid off as the ball was sent wide in a flowing movement, which resulted in Samuels dotting down in the corner.
The touchline conversion from Willemse gave the Stormers a handy 29-17 advantage heading into the final stages of the match, with the Newlands faithful finding their voice as their team closed out another win.
Man of the match: Bulls locks Lodewyk de Jager and Jason Jenkins were the Bulls' most productive players. Damian de Allende continued the upwards curve in his form. Our award goes to Stormers lock Pieter-Steph du Toit – setting the tone with his high workrate and physical performance.
The scorers:
For the Stormers:
Tries: Willemse, Louw, Marais, Samuels
Cons: Willemse 3
Pen: Marais
For Bulls:
Tries: De Jager, Jenkins
Cons: Pollard 2
Pen: Pollard
Yellow card: Ramone Samuels (Stormers, 32 – foul play, late tackle)
Teams:
Stormers: 15 Sarel Marais, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Johannes Engelbrecht, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Kobus van Dyk, 6 Siyamthanda Kolisi (captain), 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Chris van Zyl, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Ramone Samuels, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 17 Jacobus Janse van Rensburg, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 23 Seabelo Senatla.
Bulls – provisional: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Johnny Kotze, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Burger Odendaal (captain), 11 Divan Rossouw/Travis Ismaiel, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Andre Warner, 8 Thembelani Bholi/Marco van Staden, 7 Jason Jenkins/Thembelani Bholi, 6 Marco van Staden/Roelof Smit, 5 Lodewyk de Jager, 4 Rudolph Snyman, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Frans van Wyk/Nqobisiwe Mxoli, 18 Conrad van Vuuren, 19 Hendre Stassen/Roelof Smit, 20 Ivan van Zyl, 21 Manie Libbok, 22-23 Divan Rossouw/Travis Ismaiel.
Referee: Glen Jackson
Assistant referees: Egon Seconds, Fhatuwani Rasivhenge
TMO: Willie Vos
