Blues stun Stormers

The Blues edged past the Stormers 14-8 in front of a stunned Newlands crowd to end their South Africa road trip on a winning, albeit boring, note on Saturday.

The match failed to live up to it's expectations with neither team producing anything worth the admittance fee charged for the near capacity home crowd in Cape Town.

It may be a good job the Stormers are away to the Bulls next weekend, as seats will be increasingly hard to cover after another lack-lustre display from the unimagitive home side.

The Stormers supporters who came to Newlands on Saturday in the hope of seeing their team victorious in their third Super 14 match of 2009 against the Blues had to go home disappointed once again.

It was a scrappy match that never reached any great heights.

Positive

The Blues made a far more positive and organised start against the Stormers than what they did during their record loss to the Bulls last weekend. While starved of possession for stages in the opening minutes, their defence did show more structure to cut down numerous Stormers attacks.

The Stormers, with captain and centre Jean de Villiers in great form, can only blame themselves for this defeat. They created a handful of try-scoring opportunities but their finishing was poor when the final passes couldn't go to hand.

At times, hooker Schalk Brits pierced the defence but his pass to full-back Percy Montgomery wasn't secure and thereafter De Villiers darted through but his pass to Sireli Naqelevuki was intercepted by a retreating defender.

The Stormers started the match off at a brisk pace and enjoyed most of the possession and territory in the first half, however the Blues looked more threatening when they were in striking distance.

The hosts nevertheless took the lead via a Peter Grant penalty in the 10th minute, and were again saved with a desperate tackle from the Stormers' fly-half that prevented flanker Josh Blackie from scoring.

But the Blues were clinical in their finishing in the ensuing scrum. Number eight Jerome Kaino picked up at the back of the scrum, fed scrum-half Taniela Moa and the ball went wide via a skip pass to the right where wing Paul Williams had no problem in crossing the line.

He couldn't convert from far out, but his team nevertheless had the lead.

Storming back

The Stormers hit back in the 32nd minute though when scrum-half Ricky Januarie beat Blues fly-half Tasesa Lavea in a sprint for the ball after it was kicked ahead and dived over for the home side's first and only try.

Williams drew the teams level with a well-taken penalty in the 36th minute after referee Jonathan Kaplan ruled the Stormers' back-line to be offside. The well-excuted kick tied the Newland borefest at 8-8 at half-time.

The Blues winger picked up where he left off in the second half when he gave his side the lead again with a 40 metre penalty in the 52nd minute.

De Villiers saved his team not long after when he managed to haul in a flying Isaia Toeava after the full-back intercepted the ball and looked on his way to scoring a certain try.

Two minutes later the Stormers had another excellent try-scoring opportunity, but with the defence in disarray winger Tonderai Chavhanga could not hold on to De Villiers' pass.

A hopeless Brian Mujati left the field in the 13th minute from time and hooker Deon Fourie replaced him, which meant for the rest of the game the scrums were uncontested.

Williams then slotted another penalty in the 78th minute to basically seal the Stormers fate. The home team desperately attacked in the last minute and Grant was stopped centimeters from the try-line.

Kaplan awarded the scrum to the Blues and scrum-half Moa kicked it out of play to break the home supporters' hearts.

The Blues now return to New Zealand and will face the Sharks next Saturday.