The Stormers scored a runaway victory of 72-10 in their warm-up match against the Boland Cavaliers at Wellington on Saturday after leading 24-0 at half-time. The Stormers scored 12 tries, of which six were converted.
It was a typical pre-season match with plenty of mistakes on both sides, but Rassie Erasmus’s men seemed to be on the right track for the upcoming Super 14 season.
Gio Aplon opened the point spree with a try in the fourth minute (5-0). In the 13th minute, Gcobani Bobo, who looked dangerous the whole afternoon, ran through after a strong run by captain Andries Bekker. Peter Grant succeeded with the penalty (12-0).
From the kick-off the Stormers attacked strongly, but Schalk Burger was well tackled by Boland flyhalf Lionel Cornelius.
Grant and flanker Francois Louw scored tries in the 30th and 40th minutes respectively. Louw’s try was converted by Aplon to make the half-time score 24-0.
Robbie Diack, who came on as a replacement for Burger, opened the scoring for the Stormers in the sixth minute after interval for replacement flyhalf Isma-eel Dollie to convert.
He set the platform for the Stormers bench to have a field day. Schalk Ferreira (13th minute) and Joe Pietersen (15th) both scored good tries to take the Stormers’ lead to 41-0.
Boland opened their account in the 18th minute when left wing Alshaun Bock rounded off a good movement after enterprising play by centre Piet van Zyl. But four minutes later Bobo broke nicely to score his second try of the match. Dollie succeeded with the conversion (48-5).
Apol (32th), Pietersen (37th), left wing Sireli Naqelevuki (38th) and Bekker (40th) added more tries for the Stormers. Of these, Dollie could only convert Baqelevuki’s try.
In the main curtain-raiser, the Western Province Vodacom side defeated Boland B 55-14 after leading 22-7 at half-time. — Sapa