Stormers survive Lions fightback at Ellis Park

MATCH REPORT: The Stormers survived a great second-half fightback from the Lions to start their 2023/2024 United Rugby Championship campaign with a thrilling 35-33 win in Johannesburg.

The Stormers were looking comfortable with a 32-7 lead early in the second half, but they could not maintain that momentum for the rest of the match.

The home side even outscored their opponents by five tries to four in the match.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was the star of the show for the Stormers with two great tries. His first one was an example of some incredible football skills.

Sacha Mngomezulu showing @Arsenal how it is done 😎⚽️#BKTURC #URC | #LIOvSTO pic.twitter.com/rQq01b72pC

— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) October 21, 2023

Stormers will also be sweating over their captain Salmaan Moerat who left the field in the 26th minute with an injury.

The home side were first to score when hooker PJ Botha forced his way over early on, but those were to be their only points of the first half.

The Stormers then drew level from Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s individual brilliance.

There were penalties from Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Clayton Blommetjies to give them a six-point advantage and they kicked on from there.

Hooker Joseph Dweba peeled off the back of a powerful maul to crash over and scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies showed his pace and eye for the gap to burst through from the base of a ruck just before half-time.

That gave the Stormers an imposing 27-7 advantage at half-time and they secured the bonus point early in the second half when Feinberg-Mngomezulu went over for his second try with an assist from Warrick Gelant.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu added another three with a penalty from his own half to make it 35-14, at which point the game shifted once again.

The Lions ran in four second-half tries to run the Stormers close, but the visitors held out in the end to secure a bonus-point win.

Man of the match: The award goes to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu who was a standout on attack. His first will be in the highlights package for a long time and his goal-kicking was outstanding as well.

The scorers:

For Lions:
Tries: Botha, Van Wyk, Venter, Van den Berg, Horn
Cons: Hendrikse 2, Nohamba 2

For Stormers:
Tries: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2, Dweba, Jantjies
Cons: Blommetjies 3
Pens: Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2, Blommetjies

Teams:

Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Richard Kriel, 13 Manuel Rass, 12 Marius Louw (captain), 11 Rabz Maxwane, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Sanele Nohamba, 8 Francke Horn, 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 6 Sibusiso Sangweni, 5 Darrien-Lane Landsberg, 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 PJ Botha, 1 Corne Fourie.
Replacements: 16 Jaco Visagie, 17 Morgan Naude, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Willem Alberts, 20 Ruan Venter, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Henco van Wyk, 23 Andries Coetzee.

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Clayton Blommetjies, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Marcel Theunissen, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Lizo Gqoboka, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Gary Porter, 20 Hacjivah Dayimani, 21 Willie Engelbrecht, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Ben Loader.

Referee: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Griffin Colby (South Africa), Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

Additional source: @TheStormers