Sharks Grind Out Win Over Stormers

The home side weathered early pressure and opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a superb try by centre Gcobani Bobo.

The Sharks scored 20 unanswered points to rally to a 20-15 win over the Stormers in an all-South African Super 14 match on Saturday.

Victory gave one of the pre-tournament favourites a perfect start to the tournament while the Stormers suffered their fourth consecutive defeat against their rivals.

The home side weathered early pressure and opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a superb try by centre Gcobani Bobo.

Flyhalf Peter Grant added the conversion and landed a penalty on the stroke of halftime to give the Stormers a 10-0 advantage at the break.

Early in the second half the Stormers lost captain and inspirational centre Jean de Villiers to what appeared to be a bad neck injury and immediately looked a deflated team.

The Sharks sensed the opening and scrumhalf Rory Kockott booted two penalties to narrow the deficit to four points.

The sustained pressure eventually led to a try for the Sharks when Springbok skipper John Smit barged his way over for their opening try on the hour.

Five minutes later fullback Stefan Terblanche rounded off a sweeping move that started five metres from the Sharks goalline to claim their second try.

The Stormers then grabbed a late consolation touchdown through Grant.