Reds ruin Stormers' run

The Stormers' unbeaten run in Super Rugby came crashing to a halt after being beaten by a fired up Reds outfit 19-6 in Cape Town on Saturday.

The Queenslanders made it two wins in the Republic after outscoring their hosts one try to nill, with Reds pivot Quade Cooper contributing all but five points for his team with the boot.

Whilst the Reds fully deserved their victory, the Stormers' ill-discipline was a major contributing factor after being forced to play with 14 men for twenty minutes of the game.

The Stormers could have got off to the perfect start had Peter Grant found his target in the opening minute of the match. Instead it was the Reds drew who first blood with a Cooper penalty in the 23rd minute after Stormers prop Wicus Blaauw was pinged for a high tackle.

That it took the Reds over a quarter of the match to bag their opening points was testament to the Stormers defence who put in twice as many tackles as their hosts up until then. Number eight Duane Vermeulen's yellow card for a punch didn't the hosts' cause either, but no points were acrued by the Queenslanders in his absence.

Indeed, the Stormers ill-discipline would have been of concern to the sold-out Newlands Stadium, after Cooper slotted another two more three-pointers in the 29th and 33rd minutes respectively.

At 9-0, the Stormers needed to be next to post some points on the board and did exactly that thanks to a Grant penalty three minutes before half-time. Three points in 37 minutes - the Stormers had some work to do after the break.

It didn't get any better for the Stormers' supporters in the second half, as their team failed to find the spark needed to ignite a come-from-behind victory.

Grant gave the Cape Town crowd a glimmer of hope with a penalty in the 57th minute, but another yellow card - this time to hooker Deon Fourie - cost the hosts a vital player for the last ten minutes of the match.

Cooper added salt to the Stormers' wounds with his fourth successful penalty of the night and another away win for the Australian tourists was in the bank after New Zealander Mike Harris powered his way over six minutes from full-time.

Cooper added the extras from bang in front and at 19-6, the Stormers were dead and buried.

The scorers:

For Stormers:
Pens: Grant 2

For Reds:
Try: Harris
Cons: Cooper
Pens: Cooper 4

Stormers: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenhage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Rynardt Elstadt, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Wicus Blaauw.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reyneke, 17 CJ Van de Linde, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nick Koster, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Gary van Aswegen, 22 Johann Smidy.

Reds: 15 Luke Morahan, 14 Rod Davies, 13 Anthony Faingaa, 12 Mike Harris, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Scott Higginbotham, 7 Beau Robinson, 6 Radike Samo, 5 James Horwill (c), 4 Rob Simmons, 3 James Slipper, 2 James Hanson, 1 Guy Shepherdson.
Replacements: 16 Saia Faingaa, 17 , 18 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19 Leroy Houston, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Will Chambers.

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)