South Africa’s Western Stormers recorded their first win of the Super 14 when they downed the Waikato Chiefs from New Zealand 21-16 in Cape Town on Friday.
The home side, who led 14-13 at the break, outscored their opponents two tries to one.
While it was a scrappy encounter, the Stormers were much-improved from their first two outings, showing greater aggression up front and better cohesion among the forwards and they often had the visitors — who are winless after three matches — back-peddling in the first half.
Their efforts were rewarded when the Chiefs conceded an early penalty for indiscipline at the breakdown and recalled flyhalf Peter Grant made no mistake with the attempt at goal.
But as has been the case with the Cape Town-based side this year, they continued to make silly errors in defence and were punished by an equally combative Chiefs pack at a ruck and Stephen Donald duly converted the penalty that came their way.
With the Stormers enjoying plenty of good scrum-ball the home side kept up the pressure on the Chiefs around the fringes of the tight encounters and it wasn’t long before Chiefs’s lock Kristian Ormsby was punished for a late tackle, allowing Grant to add the three points.
The Chiefs then showed just how dangerous they can be with ball in hand when centre Niva Ta’auso broke through the Stormers’s defence, after debutant Dylan Des Fountain slipped the tackle, and offloaded to a charging Dwayne Sweeney who scored in the corner.
Donald added the extras and the Chiefs went 10-6 up.
While the New Zealand side made life extremely difficult for the likes of Schalk Burger and Luke Watson at the rucks, turning over plenty of ball, they also gave away a number of penalties.
Grant succeeded with his third shot at goal midway through the half to close the gap to just one point and then, almost out of the blue, the home side scored their first try of the season.
Up to the 25th minute the home side hadn’t come close to the Chiefs’s line, but when they got an attacking scrum in the middle of the field, 15m out, they moved the ball to the right, Brent Russell stepped past Roy Kinikinlau and then sent veteran winger Breyton Paulse in for the try. Grant missed the conversion.
The Chiefs struck back just minutes later through a second Donald penalty and then on the stroke of halftime, the Stormers again came close through Watson, who was denied a score after being bundled out in the corner by Kinikinilau.
As was the case in the first period, both sides struggled to secure quality ball for the backs and both were forced into giving away penalties.
The Stormers, especially, continued to play second fiddle at the breakdowns and it wasn’t long before they handed Donald another shot at goal and the Chiefs man had no difficulty in putting his side back in front.
But just when it looked like the Chiefs were going to take the game away from the Stormers, Jean de Villiers intercepted a pass with the visitors on the attack and ran all of 50m to score under the uprights. Grant converted to give the Stormers a 21-16 lead and it stayed that way until the final whistle. – Sapa-AFP