Stormers’ late surge sees off Dragons

DRAGONS ........................... 21 STORMERS ......................... 44 THE Stormers took a giant step towards sealing a United Rugby Championship play-off spot after producing a flying finish at Rodney Parade.

The South Africans were made to work hard for their bonus-point victory as they trailed until the final quarter before blowing Dragons away with three late tries.

Angelo Davids and replacement Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu both scored two tries for the fifth-placed visitors, with

Evan Roos also touching down and Manie Libbok converting all five and adding three penalties.

Harri Keddie and Aaron Wainwright went over for Dragons, Angus O’Brien converting one, while Will Reed kicked three penalties.

Dragons, looking to claim only a fourth win of the season that would have lifted them out of the bottom two, began strongly and they were rewarded when a penalty from Reed gave them an early lead.

Backchat from a scrum penalty awarded against the visitors cost them a further 10 metres, giving the hosts an attacking line-out from where Keddie forced his way over.

The Stormers conceded two more penalties in quick succession and Reed made it 11-0 with a simple kick.

The Stormers finally got on the scoreboard in the 31st minute, with Libbok slotting over his penalty. Three minutes later, the Stormers awoke from their slumbers to score a splendid try.

Reed dropped an up and under and he was made to pay for his error when a pinpoint cross-field kick from Warrick Gelant saw Davids collect before displaying too much pace for Dragons’ cover defence.

Libbok converted but his side still trailed 11-10 at the interval.

The visitors took the lead thanks to a second Libbok penalty, which was nullified by a third successful kick from Reed.

Another penalty saw Libbok again on target but Wainwright crashed over from close range, and O’Brien conversion put the Dragons 21-16 up.

But relentless Stormers pressure ended with Davids squeezing over for his second try of the match before Dragons lost prop Rodrigo Martinez to the sin bin for repeated scrum infringements. The Stormers took full advantage with Roos finishing off a driving line-out before Feinberg-Mngomezulu added two tries in quick succession.