Luke Watson scored a try and Peter Grant kicked three penalties and a conversion as South Africa’s Stormers beat New South Wales 16-10 in a Super 14 rugby match on Saturday.
Runners-up two years ago and semifinalists last season, the Waratahs enter the second half of the 2007 competition more than three wins out of the top four and needing a strong finish to make the play-offs from 13th place.
Watson’s try, along with flyhalf Grant’s conversion and two penalty goals, gave the Stormers a 13-3 lead.
Grant added another penalty six minutes later to make it 16-3 before the Waratahs were offered some hope when they were awarded a penalty try seven minutes from the end of the game.
Stormers replacement Dylan des Fountain was sin-binned for deliberately knocking down Peter Hewat’s pass that, had it found its mark, would have been a try to Lote Tuqiri.
”It’s going to be a good test of character from here on in,” Waratahs captain Adam Freier said.
New South Wales coach Ewen McKenzie said it was a poor team performance.
”You can’t win games if you can’t do better than that,” said McKenzie. ”We’re making mistakes and it’s costing us. I certainly expect better from individuals in these games, so I’m not going to sit here and make more excuses. The Stormers deserved to win.” — Sapa-AP