Habana steals victory for Stormers

A late try by Springbok wing Bryan Habana enabled Western Stormers to steal a 19-14 victory against a dominant Northern Bulls team in a Super 15 clash at Loftus Versfeld Saturday. Victory enabled the Cape franchise to stretch their lead in the South African conference to five points over the Bulls, although they are four points adrift of overall leaders Waikato Chiefs from New Zealand. Stormers owed their triumph to exceptional defence as they resisted wave after wave of attacks by the Bulls, playing in front of a capacity 50,000 home crowd. Bulls were unable to take advantage of the Stormers being reduced to 14 men when prop Frans Malherbe was given a yellow card for a dangerous tackle 20 minutes into the second half, when the Bulls were 14-9 ahead. From the resultant penalty near the Stormers line, the Bulls spurned the chance to kick for posts, opting for a line-out, which they failed to control. Stormers held out for the 10 minutes that Malherbe was off the field and a penalty by Stormers fly-half Peter Grant reduced the deficit to two points. Against the run of play, Stormers won a turnover from a ruck eight minutes from time. Flank Siya Kolisi, who was named man of the match, broke and passed inside for Habana to race over near the posts for a try converted by Grant. Bulls captain and eighthman Pierre Spies scored a first-half try and fly-half Morne Steyn landed three penalty goals for the Bulls, who led 11-9 at half-time. Grant kicked four penalties for Stormers. "It was a great occasion, we played against a massively good team," said Stormers captain and centre Jean de Villiers. De Villiers said the contest showed the strength of South African rugby ahead of a three-Test home series against England, starting on June 9 at Kings Park in Durban. "The Stormers did a great job," said Spies. "Their defence was well organised. We've got to regroup if we want to reach the semi-finals." Despite leading the South African conference, Stormers went in as underdogs after suffering a series of injuries to key forwards. They missed line-out king Andries Bekker, with the Bulls stealing five lineouts on Stormers throws, and the Bulls dominated the rucks. But the Stormers defence, with Kolisi standing out with ferocious tackling, held firm.