Lock Adre Smith of the Stormers in action against the Glasgow Warriors in a URC match on Friday. Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The Stormers put in a top performance to cruise to a 32-7 (halftime 13-7) bonus point win over the Glasgow Warriors in their United Rugby Championship match at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night.
It was an uncharacteristically slow start to the game for the Stormers, coupled with a number of handling errors that allowed Glasgow to have the better start, despite the Stormers forward pack dominating.
Stormers flyhalf Manie Libbok had an early chance to put them on the board, but pushed a fifth minute penalty wide, which gave the visitors the chance to take the lead in the 17th minute.
Glasgow were not interested in going for posts, choosing the line out a couple of times and after some good play on the Stormers line, eighthman Jack Dempsey forced his way over, with flyhalf Ross Thompson adding the extras.
The Stormers then finally burst to life in the final 10 minutes to power into a 13-7 lead at halftime.
Libbok slotted two penalties either side a good try to inside centre Rikus Pretorius, who took a short ball from fullback Damian Willemse after he had changed the line off attack in the Glasgow 22m.
The second half was then all the Stormers as they scored three tries to none to power to the impressive win.
Two tries in four minutes saw the home side take full control, with replacement fullback Warrick Gelant and flank Hacjivah Dayimani combining brilliantly.
First from a poor clearance in the 53rd minute Gelant put Dayimani into a gap, with him offloading to scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies to score, followed by Gelant feeding Dayimani in the 22m and him finding left wing Leolin Zas to go over, which put them into a 25-7 lead.
A yellow card to Glasgow right wing Josh McKay for a high hit on Stormers outside centre Ruhan Nel in the 68th minute, then gave the home side a great chance to chase the four try bonus point.
Although they couldn’t make the man advantage count, the Stormers managed to grab it on the full time hooter as a superb attack from a scrum ended with Evan Roos crashing over for the vital final score.