South Africa’s Stormers scored three tries in three minutes in the second half on Friday to beat the Queensland Reds 24-20 in a Super 14 rugby match.
Rodney Blake and Drew Mitchell scored first-half tries as the Reds led 13-3 at half-time, but the Stormers’ second-half burst of 21 points put the visitors ahead for good.
Springbok No 8 Joe van Niekerk scored the Stormers’ first try 14 minutes into the second half, and Jongi Nokwe and Gerri Britz added two more in the next three minutes, with Peter Grant converting all three tries.
The three-try burst began with skipper De Wet Barry finding hooker Schalk Brits, who sidestepped Peter Hynes to put van Niekerk over in the left corner.
From the kick-off, a poor pass by Mitchell to Mitchell Chapman allowed winger Nokwe to pounce and toe the ball ahead three times and win the race for an 80-metre try.
Then centre Jean de Villiers broke away and eventually found Barry with a flick pass which allowed him to put lock Britz over.
Ben Tune scored a late converted try for Queensland to give the Reds a bonus point for losing by fewer than seven points. — Sapa-AP
Scores:
Stormers 24 (Joe Van Niekerk, Jongi Nokwe, Gerrie Britz tries; Peter Grant 3 conversions, Naas Oliver penalty)
Queensland 20 (Rodney Blake, Drew Mitchell, Ben Tune tries; Julian Huxley penalty, conversion).