The Stormers scored one of the fastest tries in the Super 14 as they romped to a 32-16 win over Australia’s Western Force in Perth on Friday.
Wing Tonderai Chavhanga caught the Force napping to touch down after just 48 seconds as the Stormers ended their month-long visit to Australia and New Zealand with three wins from four matches.
Chavhanga scored a second try before the break to give the visitors a healthy 20-11 lead at half-time before captain Jean de Villiers and prop JD Moller crossed in the second term to secure a bonus point before the South Africans head home to Cape Town.
”We knew it’d be tough in the first couple of games but we just stuck to our guns,” De Villiers said in a televised interview.
”We were really committed at the breakdown. We made a couple of mistakes but I thought that’s where we won it today [Friday].
”I thought our pack was much better than last week, we got the four tries again and I’m just stoked for the guys.”
The Force went into the match as favourites after winning their last two games in New Zealand but were outplayed from the start and could only manage two consolation tries from wing Drew Mitchell and centre Ryan Cross.
”We just lacked energy tonight [Friday], right across the board,” said Force skipper Nathan Sharpe.
”Full credit to the Stormers, they played very well but we just made far too many mistakes to be competitive.”
The Force recovered from Chavhanga’s first-minute try to snatch the lead midway through the first half after Mitchell crossed and flyhalf Matt Giteau landed the first of his two penalties.
The Stormers immediately regained the lead when Chavhanga combined with flyhalf Peter Grant to notch his double.
His side killed off the Force’s hopes of a comeback when De Villiers scored off an intercept 15 minutes from the end and Moller scored his first Super 14 try in four seasons.
”This was by far our worst performance of the year,” Sharpe said.
”It’s just one loss and we’re certainly not going to throw the season away but sometimes you need a performance like that to spark you into gear and hopefully that’s a wake up call for us.” — Reuters