The Western Stormers completed a day of great Super 15 comebacks by South African sides with a 25-24 victory over Australian side the ACT Brumbies in Cape Town on Saturday.
The hosts overcame a 13-point first-half deficit at Newlands Stadium to scrape home and climb to second on the southern hemisphere inter-provincial championship standings.
Compatriots the Golden Lions pointed the way a few hours before in Johannesburg by winning 28-23 against New Zealand’s Otago Highlanders having trailed by 17 points at halftime.
Photo: EPA
The Lions staged a remarkable comeback, roaring into the lead within 20 minutes of the restart as wing Courtnall Skosan, flank Jaco Kriel and center Harold Vorster crossed for tries.
Replacement flyhalf Elton Jantjies converted two of those and added two penalties to keep the Lions’ playoff chances alive.
Marnitz Boshoff scored the home side’s only points of the first half with a seventh-minute penalty to put them ahead.
Highlanders flyhalf Lima Sopoaga leveled, also with a penalty, after 23 minutes before adding a drop-goal and converting the tries of flank Gareth Evans and center Malakai Fekitoa in the final six minutes of the first half.
It was a complete turnaround after the break as the Lions took control and limited the visitors to a Ben Smith drop-goal as they surged to a remarkable victory.
However, there could have been a different outcome in Cape Town had Brumbies center Christian Lealiifano not fluffed a simple conversion of a try by flanker David Pocock with eight minutes left. Wallaby Lealiifano, the third-highest Super 15 points scorer this season with 114, saw his attempt come back off the left post.
Rival goal-kicker and Stormers flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis contributed 20 points through five penalties, a conversion and a penalty.
Victory enabled the Stormers to bounce back from a shock loss against fellow South African side the Central Cheetahs last weekend and succeed for only the fifth time in 17 clashes with the Canberra outfit.
The Brumbies collected a losing bonus point and clung to third place on the combined standings, but defending champions the New South Wales Waratahs are just one point behind in the race to top the Australian conference.
It was the fourth defeat in five outings for the former champions and skipper and hooker Stephen Moore could not hide his frustration.
“We have suffered too many narrow losses this season,” the veteran Wallaby said. “This was a very disappointing result. I knew it would be tough in Cape Town and am proud of the guys, but we came here to win rather than be gallant losers.”
Stormers skipper and loose forward Duane Vermeulen said: “We took a long look at ourselves after the Cheetahs match and the performance tonight was a massive step-up from Bloemfontein.”
The Brumbies began impressively and an opportunist try from winger Joe Tomane helped build a 13-point lead by the half hour.
Tomane pounced on a poor grubber kick from Stormers center Damian de Allende to outpace the defense and score a converted try.
Catrakilis trimmed the visitors’ lead to 16-9 at halftime with two penalties just before the break. Another two Catrakilis penalties left only one point between the sides in a niggly game before the home team went ahead for the first time.
Flanker Schalk Burger scored a try soon after a dangerous tackle on him led to Brumbies replacement forward Jordan Smiler being sin binned. Lealiifano kicked his third penalty, Catrakilis slotted a drop-goal and Pocock raced over for a try after breaking from a line-out to close the scoring.
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