Stormers on the charge

Bryan Habana's late try secured the Stormers a bonus point in their 33-0 victory over the Highlanders at Newlands.

The home side looked like they were going to be denied the crucial extra point despite having dominated throughout.

But with seconds remaining, Habana charged down Michael Hobbs' kick on the halfway line and charged 50 metres to score.

His effort added to earlier tries from Deon Fourie, Schalk Burger and Pieter Louw as the Stormers continued their strong start to the Super 14.

The Highlanders had an early point-scoring opportunity when Andries Bekker was penalised for dangerously tackling Jason Rutledge, but Israel Dagg pulled his penalty to the right.

Capitalised

It proved to be their only real chance to score in the first half as the Stormers took charge of proceedings.

Joe Pietersen put the first points on the board after nine minutes when Alando Soakai failed to roll away from the ruck and doubled the advantage four minutes later by capitalising on Clint Newland being caught off-side.

The first try arrived on the 15-minute mark when the ball was quickly spread wide to Sireli Naqelevuki, who was held up just short, but Fourie picked up and dived over in the corner.

Pietersen added an excellent conversion, before another penalty on the half-hour - awarded when Adam Thomson failed to release in the tackle - helped Alastair Coetzee's team to a 16-0 half-time lead.

After the restart, the hosts came out searching for the three more tries which would hand them a bonus point and for a while it seemed it was not going to be their evening.

Jimmy Cowan looked like scoring after his quick thinking at the base of the ruck saw him dive over - but the referee went upstairs and the television official rightly spotted a knock-on.

Cowan injury

The New Zealand scrum-half soon had to go off after picking up a knock and it proved a telling blow for his team, who finally conceded the second try 21 minutes into the second half.

It came after several phases of rucking and Burger applied the finishing touches by driving over.

Pietersen missed the conversion this time, but the Stormers did not have long to wait for their next points - another passage of good work from the forwards saw them win the line-out and allow time for Louw to push his way over.

Another miss by the kicking full-back followed, but with time running out Springbok winger Habana had the final say to send the 36,000 crowd into a frenzy.