Stormers blow away toothless Lions

The Stormers scored four tries to clinch a commanding 32-10 bonus-point win over the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday.

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The Stormers’ purple patch continues. They’ve now gone four games unbeaten, with three wins and a draw.

The long-awaited selection of Damian Willemse at inside centre in tandem with Warrick Gelant at fullback and, to an extent, Manie Libbok at flyhalf, created some excitement and expectation among the Stormers faithful – and the trio delivered.

They were at the heart of the Stormers’ supreme attack, a facet of the game where the Lions were found lacking.

The honours were pretty even in terms of possession and territory but, while the Stormers converted scoring opportunities, the Lions squandered theirs.

The teams were deadlocked at 3-3 after the first quarter thanks to penalty kicks from Libbok and Tiaan Swanepoel.

But, just as it looked as if neither side was going to convert chances created into points, Hacjivah Dayimani scored a brilliant individual effort against his former team.

After his initial hand-off on Jaco Kriel, Dayimani found himself in acres of space as the Lions defence parted like the Red Sea, allowing the No 8 an easy run-in to the tryline.

That seven-point deficit for the Lions grew considerably after the restart as the Stormers’ power runners combined skill, speed and agility to rip the hosts’ defence to shreds.

The Cape side added three unanswered tries – including a brilliant counter-attacking touchdown by Sergeal Petersen – to ensure they came away with the maximum log points on offer.

Petersen’s try came from turnover possession inside their own 22. Willemse broke the line with a strong run and offloaded inside to Paul de Wet, who popped the ball to the wing to score.

There was a late score for the Lions when the Stormers conceded a yellow card and a try but, in the context of the game, it was a mere consolation for Ivan van Rooyen’s charges.