Dragons fightback in vain at Stormers

New Zealand born Aki Seiuli joined Dragons from Glasgow Warriors in July 2021

Dragons' comeback fell just short as Stormers won 34-26 in South Africa.

Ruhan Nel added a third try, finishing a brilliant counter-attack, and a the bonus point was sealed before half-time when Manie Libbok raced clear to score.

Dragons hit back with tries from Jordan Williams, Aki Seiuli, JJ Hanrahan and Josh Reynolds but Stormers held on.

Playing in their first United Rugby Championship (URC) match at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Stormers put on a brilliant first-half display for the home crowd.

Dragons were hoping to bounce back from last weekend's 33-25 defeat at Lions. but could not keep up with the early pace set by the hosts.

Nama Xaba picked up a back problem in the warm-up making way for Pokomela to start for Stormers, and the flanker made the most of the opportunity after 10 minutes.

From a Stormers line-out, five metres from the Dragons try-line, the South African side's pack drove the Welsh region back rapidly and Pokomela jumped out to cross for the opening score.

The second try came minutes later in almost identical fashion, a line-out from the same position was once again gathered by the Stormers, but this time it was hooker Dweba who touched down for the try.

Nel scored the Stormers' third try, finishing off a great initial break from Leolin Zas, the wing burst down the left before offloading to Clayton Blommetjies who in turn found Nel to walk over and score.

After another penalty against Dragons at the scrum, Libbok played advantage and skipped out of two tackles to run half the length of the field to score.

From that point on though, it was the Welsh region who dominated proceedings.

Dragons got on the board with the final play of the first half, Jordan Williams intercepted a Libbok pass and sprinted from midway inside his own half to score under the post.

The Welsh region started the second half strongly and had their second try of the match from a driving maul of their own, prop Seiuli crossing over.

Two penalties from Libbok, either side of a yellow card for Dragons wing Sio Tompkinson for an off-the-ball tackle, kept the scoreboard ticking for Stormers.

Hanrahan crossed with 10 minutes to go after a lovely move involving replacements Ben Fry and Lewis Jones to make it 34-19.

And with five minutes remaining replacement prop Reynolds came flying out of the driving maul to power through a tackle and secure a try bonus point for the Dragons.

But the South African side would see out the final minutes with possession in the Dragons' half, to hold on for a 34-26 win, their sixth win from eight URC games.

Victory moves Stormers up to second in the URC, but for Dragons a sixth defeat from nine games sees them remain in 11th.

Stormers: Clayton Blommetjies; Tristan Leyds, Ruhan Nel, Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas; Manie Libbok, Herschel Jantjies; Kwenzo Blose, Joseph Dweba, Neethling Fouche, Salmaan Moerat (capt), Marvin Orie, Junior Pokomela, Willie Engelbrecht, Hacjivah Dayimani.

Replacements: JJ Kotze, Brok Harris, Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, Connor Evans, Deon Fourie, Paul de Wet, Kade Wolhuter, Mnombo Zwelendaba.

Dragons: Angus O'Brien; Sio Tomkinson, Steff Hughes, Max Clark, Jordan Williams; JJ Hanrahan, Rhodri Williams; Aki Seiuli, Bradley Roberts, Lloyd Fairbrother, Matthew Screech, Sean Lonsdale, Huw Taylor, Aaron Wainwright, Ross Moriarty (capt)

Replacements: James Benjamin, Josh Reynolds, Chris Coleman, Harri Keddie, Ben Fry, Lewis Jones, Will Reed, Aneurin Owen

Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU)

Assistant referees: Aimee Barrett-Theron & Christopher Allison (SARU)

TMO: Ben Blain (SRU)