{"id":12427,"date":"2012-07-15T00:45:03","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/rugby-stormers-clinch-top-spot-in-super-rugby-standings\/"},"modified":"2012-07-15T00:45:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-14T22:45:03","slug":"rugby-stormers-clinch-top-spot-in-super-rugby-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-stormers-clinch-top-spot-in-super-rugby-standings\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Stormers clinch top spot in Super Rugby standings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Jason Humphries<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

CAPE TOWN, July 14<\/span> (Reuters) – The Stormers clinched top
\nspot i n the final Super Rugby standings with a 26-21 win over
\nthe Melbourne Rebels at Newlands on Saturday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African side ended the league phase of the
\ncompetition at the head of the table on 66 points, two clear of
\nNew Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Stormers, who will host a semi-final and the final if
\nthey get there, had to repel a strong second-half performance
\nfrom the Australian visitors who trailed 16-0 at halftime before
\nclawing their way back with three tries.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it was not enough to provide former Australia
\ninternational Stirling Mortlock, an 80-test veteran, with a
\nwinning swansong in the 35-year-old’s last game before retiring.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Stormers played the first half with a strong wind at
\ntheir backs and made all the early running as two penalties from
\nflyhalf Peter Grant put them 6-0 ahead after eight minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Grant ended the match with 16 points courtesy of two
\nconversions and four penalties in a flawless kicking display.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The home team continued to build on their territorial
\nadvantage and they grabbed their first try, in the 14th minute,
\nwhen outside centre Juan de Jongh stepped off his left foot to
\nbeat two defenders.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rebels fought back and they had the better of the second
\nquarter of the match but were unable to breach a Stormers
\ndefence which had, before the game, conceded just 18 tries all
\nseason.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason Humphries CAPE TOWN, July 14 (Reuters) – The Stormers clinched top spot i n the final Super Rugby standings with a 26-21 win over the Melbourne Rebels at Newlands on Saturday. The South African side ended the league phase of the competition at the head of the table on 66 points, two clear […]<\/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-12427","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\/12427","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=12427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}