Stormers win at sold out DHL Stadium

A late try from Jean-Luc du Plessis saw the Stormers clinch a crucial 24-20 bonus point win against the Sharks at DHL Stadium on Saturday.

It was an intense South African derby, but the Stormers showed great character to come through and finish the year on a high with a hard-fought five log points.

The visitors opened the scoring with a penalty from flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse after some impressive defence from the hosts in the 22.

The Stormers turned down a shot at goal and opted to take a quick tap, which paid off when Seabelo Senatla dived on a kick-through from Warrick Gelant to score the opening try.

The Sharks scored a try of their own as wing Yaw Penxe finished in the corner from a set-move off a scrum.

The Stormers finished the first half strong and looked to have scored from a maul, but the TMO ruled that Andre-Hugo Venter was in touch and although Ethan Hooker was shown a yellow card for coming in from the side, it was the Sharks who went into half-time with a 10-5 lead.

The Stormers pushed hard at the start of the second half and eventually got the reward when captain Deon Fourie went over for a maul try to draw things level.

They backed that up with another try from Manie Libbok, who stepped through the defence to the delight of the crowd, but the Durban side hit back with a try and penalty from flyhalf Jaden Hendrikse to go back in front.

The Stormers were forced to dig deep and they did just that as the forwards took a powerful maul within inches of the line before Du Plessis forced his way over for the winning score.

The scorers:

For the Stormers:
Tries: Senatla, Fourie, Libbok, Du Plessis
Cons: Libbok 2

For Sharks:
Tries: Penxe, Hendrikse
Cons: Hendrikse 2
Pens: Hendrikse 2

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouché, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis.