{"id":11043,"date":"2012-06-03T10:39:14","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T08:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/rugby-stormers-hang-on-to-top-spot-with-win-over-bulls\/"},"modified":"2012-06-03T10:39:14","modified_gmt":"2012-06-03T08:39:14","slug":"rugby-stormers-hang-on-to-top-spot-with-win-over-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-stormers-hang-on-to-top-spot-with-win-over-bulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Stormers hang on to top spot with win over Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Ken Borland<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>PRETORIA, South Africa, June 2 &#8211; The Stormers hung on to top<br \/>\nspot in the South African Conference with a 19-14 victory in the<br \/>\nSuperRugby derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Trailing 14-9 the Stormers were pinned back in their own<br \/>\nterritory for most of the second half by the Bulls&#8217; dominant<br \/>\nforwards but the unerring boot of flyhalf Peter Grant landed a<br \/>\npenalty before wing Bryan Habana scored a 69th-minute try.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Bulls&#8217; percentage rugby seemed to be wearing down the<br \/>\nStormers as flyhalf Morne Steyn kicked three penalties and<br \/>\nnumber eight Pierre Spies muscled over for a try after a free<br \/>\nkick from a lineout inside the Stormers 22.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>But it was the only try the Stormers&#8217; brilliant defensive<br \/>\nsystem allowed, despite the Bulls spending 66 percent of the<br \/>\nmatch in their territory.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The decisive moment came when flank Siya Kolisi, an enormous<br \/>\ndefensive presence throughout, superbly evaded two on-rushing<br \/>\nBulls defenders and raced into the 22 where he fired a pinpoint<br \/>\npass to Habana to score against his old club.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Grant kicked the conversion to stretch the lead to 19-14 and<br \/>\nensure the Bulls had to score a try in the last 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>With the Lions dealing a mortal blow to the Sharks with<br \/>\ntheir shock victory in Johannesburg earlier on Saturday, the<br \/>\nStormers are now five points clear at the top of the South<br \/>\nAfrican Conference with three matches to play against the lowly<br \/>\nLions, Cheetahs and Rebels.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Stormers are on 54 points, in second place in the<br \/>\noverall standings, with the Bulls on 49 and the Sharks on 45<br \/>\nwith just two matches to play.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Editing by Martyn Herman)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Borland PRETORIA, South Africa, June 2 &#8211; The Stormers hung on to top spot in the South African Conference with a 19-14 victory in the SuperRugby derby at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. Trailing 14-9 the Stormers were pinned back in their own territory for most of the second half by the Bulls&#8217; dominant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}