Stormers end on a high

The Stormers rounded off their Super 14 campaign with a meaningless 28-22 victory over fellow South Africans the Cheetahs in Bloemontein.

With both sides out of the running for the semi-finals, only a handful of players on show had something to prove with selection for the Springbok squad to face the British and Irish Lions just around the corner.

The Cheetahs were first to strike after Meyer Bosman used his turn of pace to accelerate through the Stormers' defence. Hendro Scholtz was up in support to offload to scrum-half Sarel Pretorius, who held on to score.

The home side continued to dominate the opening exchanges and hardly allowed the Stormers to touch the ball in the opening quarter of an hour.

But the visitors cashed-in on their first decent possession when Dylan des Fountain backed himself to beat Jongi Nokwe and was just able to stretch out an arm to touch down.

Willem de Waal's conversion leveled the scores before the former Cheetah used his local knowledge to move the Stormers ahead with a penalty on 20 minutes. A period of scrappy play followed with neither team able to gain the ascendency and tensions running high.

Cape Town exile Naas Olivier leveled the scores with a penalty with half-time beckoning, but the Stormers landed a telling blow just before the hooter when twinkle toes Joe Pietersen profited from some sloppy Cheetahs defending to score.

De Waal's extras gave the visitors a 17-10 lead as the teams headed for the sheds with Cheetahs captain Juan Smith furious at his team's lack of application.

De Waal was on target again after the break to open the gap to ten points when the Cheetahs heavies were nailed for illegal scrummaging, and then again after 54 minutes when the home loose forwards were off their feet, to make the scores 23-10.

Pietersen put the Stormers further ahead after Gcobani Bobo committed two defenders before off-loading to the flying full-back, who finished in the corner.

A consolation try for Cheetahs replacement Nico Breedt with eight minutes to play, and then another break away try for lock David de Villiers on full time proved to be too little too late for the home side.