URC Result: Stormers fight back to overcome Dragons

Angelo Davids dotted down on his return to steer the DHL Stormers to a hard-fought bonus-point win against a fired-up Dragons in Newport on Friday.

A brace of tries for Davids in his first game since February helped the DHL Stormers claim a 44-21 victory over the Dragons at Rodney Parade.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu crossed for two tries sparking a Stormers flurry of 21 unanswered points in the final seven minutes as they banked the bonus point to retain fifth place on the Vodacom URC log.

John Dobson’s side made it a one-point gap between themselves and the fourth-placed Vodacom Bulls, who face league leaders Glasgow Warriors in Pretoria on Saturday.

Going into the break 11-10 down, the visitors trailed for most of the contest, struggling to retain possession in the face of an aggressive Dragons side that had nothing to lose.

It was only when Davids dotted down for his first try of the season in the 34th minute, from an excellent grubber kick from man of the match Warrick Gelant, that the Stormers managed to create anything of worth in the first half.

Dragons were enjoying most of the possession and territory, camping down in the Stormers’ 22, but couldn’t land a knockout blow after taking an early 11-0 lead.

The second half became an end-to-end affair, but Dragons put themselves in the driving seat going into the final 20 minutes when No 8 Aaron Wainwright reached over the tryline on the hour mark.

However, from there the game opened up and the Stormers took full advantage, carving Dragons to shred with some wonderfully times offloads.

Davids grabbed his second try, before Evan Roos went over from a powerful driving maul and Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored twice to ensure the visitors came away with all five log points.

Next up for the Stormers is a clash with Connacht in Galway next Saturday.

This story was first published on sarugbymag.co.za. It is republished here with permission.