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Stormers upset Chiefs at Newlands

The Stormers defeated the in-form Chiefs 36-34 in a tightly-fought encounter on Saturday, 9 March 2013, at Newlands.

Published

13 years ago

March 9, 2013

The Stormers overcame the in-form Chiefs outfit 36-34 in a tightly-fought encounter on Saturday, 9 March 2013, at Newlands.

Joe Pietersen got the scoring underway with an early penalty that gave the home team a 3 point lead.

A great attacking passage was rounded off by Gio Aplon, who went under the posts following a well-timed inside pass from Elton Jantjies.

An offside infringement gave Chiefs fullback Gareth Anscomb the chance to open his team’s account through a well-struck penalty.

Following another Pietersen penalty, the Chiefs hit back with Aaron Cruden pushing through a little kick that centre Charlie Ngatai pounced on excellently. Anscombe added the extra to make it 13-10 to the Stormers.

Tawera Kerr-Barlow was sent to the bin, but instead of the Chiefs suffering without their scrumhalf, they managed to score a try. Nanai-Williams was on the end of a perfect kick through from Aaron Cruden.

Cruden then tried another grubber through within his own 22 that didn’t go as planned. The kick was deflected back over the Chiefs’ tryline, and Aplon won the race to dot it down first.

The second-half started with an Anscombe penalty, but the Stormers hit back through Nic Groom, who slipped over the tryline from a ruck 5m out from the Chiefs line. Pietersen’s conversion was successful, making the score 33-20 to the Stormers.

The Chiefs began building quick attacking phases, and Nanai-Williams through a well-timed pass to put Anscombe through a gap, who offloaded to Ngatai to cross the line for his second. The conversion was purely a formality for Anscombe.

With the score sitting at 33-27 to the Stormers, Joe Pietersen had another penalty shot to push his team 9 points ahead with 20 minutes left on the clock.

The Chiefs began showing their usual counterattacking talents and replacement back Andrew Horrell went into the corner following some brilliant passing by Nanai-Williams and Anscombe.

The Stormers managed to hold out the Chiefs’ attack in the dying minutes to secure their first win of the season.