Waratahs collect first Super Rugby win in Cape Town since 2006, shrugging off Stormers 22-11

THE Waratahs ended an eight-year wait for success in Cape Town with a workmanlike 22-11 Super Rugby victory over the Stormers.

Bernard Foley of the Waratahs dictates the play in Cape Town.

NEW South Wales Waratahs ended an eight-year wait for success in Cape Town with a workmanlike 22-11 Super 15 victory over Western Stormers Saturday.

Victory lifted the Australians to fourth place on 20 points, three behind the South African pacesetters Coastal Sharks.

It also atoned for a poor performance at the start of their two-match tour in Durban last weekend whey they suffered a 22-point pasting from the Sharks.

Waratahs once again lacked star full-back Israel Folau, who failed to make the expected recovery from a throat injury.

But unerring goal-kicking by fly-half Bernard Foley and full-back Kurtley Beale, with neither missing a shot at the posts, contributed handsomely to the win.

Stormers pair Nizaam Carr and Deon Fourie tackle Waratahs prop Benn Robinson.

Foley potted three penalties and a conversion and Beale two longer-distance penalties and an opportunist try from scrum-half Nick Phipps completed the Waratahs total.

After a disastrous four-defeat tour of Australasia, Stormers appointed former Springbok loose forward Gert Smal as director of rugby this week.

However, the losing streak continued with a try by right-wing Kobus van Wyk and two penalties from veteran fly-half Peter Grant was all the home side could deliver.

Stormers looked capable of ending the losing streak during a first half which ended with them trailing 10-8 before a 25,000 Newlands stadium crowd.

Adam Ashley-Cooper and Kurtley Beale of the Waratahs tackle Sailosi Tagicakibau.

Centre Juan de Jongh was prominent and his brilliant midfield break set up Van Wyk to go over far out, but usually deadly Grant disappointed with two misses from four goal-kicks.

Waratahs took a stranglehold on possession and territory after the break and defended superbly in the dying minutes as the Stormers sought a losing bonus point.

“This was a really pleasing result from a typically physical Super Rugby match,” said Waratahs skipper and No. 8 Dave Dennis.

“The pack did well and so did the backline with Kurtley showing lots of skill and vision at full-back and Bernard controlling the game from fly-half.”

Duane Vermeulen, standing in as Stormers skipper with centre Jean de Villiers injured, said small second-half mistakes cost his team dearly.

Siya Kolisi of the Stormers takes on the Waratahs defence.

“We had a good game plan and executed it well until half-time, but silly little errors during the second half proved our undoing.”

A Grant penalty nudged the Stormers ahead on 12 minutes only for Phipps to snatch a loose ball off a scrum won by the South Africans and score.

Foley converted for a 7-3 lead that was surrendered when De Jongh gave Van Wyk a try-scoring pass.

Stormers retained the one-point advantage for 12 minutes until Foley slotted his first penalty to close the first-half scoring.

Beale and Foley added a penalty each before Grant cut the gap to five points with his second penalty.

But the anticipated Stormers rally in the final 20 minutes never materialised and Beale and Foley succeeded with penalty kicks to earn the Sydney side a convincing win.