BY VOICE SPORTS TEAM
Haai fives did the rounds at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night, after the Stormers scored a bonus-point try at the death to beat the Sharks 24-20 in the United Rugby Championship.
The win means the Kapenaars ended the year in eighth place in the URC after four wins from eight matches, with the Sharks in fifth with five wins.
The Stormers, though, had to pull out all the stops in front of a sold-out crowd to win the derby, with the Durbanites pushing them all the way.
Coach John Dobson’s ouens were down 10-5 at the break, after the Sharks drew first blood with a Jordan Hendrikse penalty goal after five minutes before Stormers wing Seabelo Senatla scored the first try of the match after chasing down Warrick Gelant’s left-footed chip from 10 metres out.
The hosts then had to use both their backline substitutions after picking a 6-2 split, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Herschel Jantjies both going down in the first half.
Sharks right wing Yaw Penxe put his team in front at the break when he went in the left corner after a sweet backline move straight from a scrum.
And after having a try overturned by the TMO, the Stormers levelled with their second five-pointer from captain Deon Fourie at the back of a maul in the 53rd minute.
Manie Libbok then came from around the corner to cruise onto a pass from scrumhalf Paul de Wet to score the Stormers’ third try with 13 minutes remaining, but the Hendrikses (Jordan and Jaden) combined for the Sharks to hit back with eight minutes remaining.
Jaden’s no-look pass to his brother saw Jordan surge over. Jordan converted his own try to level the scores (17-17).
𝐉𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐱 𝐉𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐧 🦈
The brothers combine to set up a Grandstand finish at the DHL Stadium 🔥🔥
📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/8qYhdLSewy
He then followed it up with a 45-metre penalty goal to put his side in front with five minutes remaining and set up a frantic finale before the Stormers’ crushing blow to the Durbanites’ hopes.
With three minutes to go, Libbok kicked a penalty to the 22-metre line and the Stormers drove the lineout to within a couple of metres from the line.
Du Plessis then timed his run perfectly to take the pop pass from scrumhalf De Wet to dive over for the win and the five log points.
Manie slots the pressure kick 🎯🎯
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 28, 2024
The DHL Stormers lead by four with 30 seconds to play 🌩️
📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/aueQZv40MG