Burger burns Blues as Stormers fight back

Posted May 20, 2011 19:48:00

Stormers captain Schalk Burger scored a 79th-minute try converted by Dewaldt Duvenage to cap a 16-point second-half recovery and snatch a 28-26 victory over the Auckland Blues in their Super rugby clash at Eden Park on Friday.

The Stormers, who blew a 17-point half-time advantage last week against the Waikato Chiefs, had trailed 19-3 at half time but scored three second half tries to ensure they would remain top of the South African conference by the end of the weekend.

"After that first half, we got a stern talking-to at half-time and we managed to turn it around," Burger said in a televised interview.

"We took a lot of lessons out of last week and even though we were down I thought we had a lot of attacking opportunities.

"The second half we made sure that we kept the ball in hand and put the Blues under pressure."

The Blues had led 19-3 at the break courtesy of Luke McAlister's four penalties and a conversion of scrum-half Alby Mathewson's try, which had been sparked from a Stormers turnover with Stephen Brett breaking through a weak defensive line.

Stormers fly half Lionel Cronje kicked a penalty for the visitors but missed two other shots at goal, the second after he had suffered a knee injury and he was forced off following the kick.

Duvenage slotted the first points of the second half with an early penalty before the visitors scored two tries to the centre pairing of Juan de Jongh and Johann Sadie within the space of three minutes to bring the score to 19-18 with 20 minutes remaining.

Blues full-back Lachie Munro, however, took advantage of driving run and a slippery ball which the Stormers failed to clear to score his side's second try with 12 minutes remaining.

McAlister converted though Duvenage reduced the deficit again with his second penalty, before Burger tied the score at 26-26 from a rolling maul following an attacking line-out.

"I think they played with the ball quite well, played in the right part of the field and applied that pressure," Blues captain Keven Mealamu said.

"I'm just disappointed with those two tries where we slipped off some simple tackles and it cost us."

Stormers: 28 (S Burger, J De Jongh, J Sadie tries; D Duvenage 2 cons; Duvenage 2, L Cronje pens)

Blues: 26 (A Mathewson, L Munro tries; L McAlister 2 cons, 4 pens)

- Reuters

Tags: sport, rugby-union, super-14, new-zealand, south-africa

View the original article here