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Smith the hero

Joe Pietersen's late conversion miss denied the Stormers a share of the spoils as they slumped 19-17 to the Brumbies for their first loss of the Super 14 season at Newlands.

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Sportal.co.nz

Joe Pietersen's late conversion miss denied the Stormers a share of the spoils as they slumped 19-17 to the Brumbies for their first loss of the Super 14 season at Newlands.

A converted intercept try from George Smith three minutes from full-time put the visitors ahead - Matt Giteau added the extras to complete a 14-point haul - but Pieter Louw's five-pointer after the hooter gave the home side hope.

However, Pietersen, who had kicked 12 points until then, missed the conversion from wide on the left as his side's 100 percent start to the campaign was halted.

The Cape Town franchise began brightly enough, camping out in the visitors' 22 during the early exchanges.

However, its efforts went unrewarded - the closest it came to crossing the line was when Pieter Louw made the most of Andries Bekker's efforts to win a line-out by powerfully driving forward only for the try to be ruled out by the television referee after it narrowly looked to have touched the side line.

That was in the eighth minute and the Brumbies slowly began to get into the game with Pietersen forced to make an under-pressure clearance following a drive by the Brumbies.

The deadlock was eventually broken in the 14th minute when Smith was penalised for not releasing Juan de Jongh in the tackle and Pietersen slotted over the three points.

But the Australians hit straight back when Tiaan Liebenberg was caught offside - Giteau drawing the sides level.

The two kickers added further penalties to leave the scores at 6-6 after the half-hour mark, before a virtual reversal of the opening exchanges.

Stirling Mortlock had the best chance to break through, but knocked on after a fine off-load from Giteau.

The Stormers would have been relieved to hear the half-time siren and coach Alistair Coetzee's team talk during the break seemed to have slightly rejuvenated his side.

It went back in front after another good passage of build-up play, set-up initially by Liebenberg's surge down the left.

A penalty was awarded for incorrect entry into the ruck and Pietersen made it 9-3, only to see Giteau again square up after Brok Harris was caught off his feet.

The shift in momentum proved to be short-lived and, after Pietersen missed his first kick of the evening, the visitors continued to pour forward.

But poor handling in the final third continued to cost them.

Giteau put them in front for the first time when Bryan Habana was penalised for tackling on the ground.

With 15 minutes remaining it was all square once more via another Pietersen penalty and the scores remained that way until the 77th minute when Smith was in the right place to steal in on an attempted Brok Harris pass to Jaque Fourie.

His team-mate added the two, before Louw's late effort proved in vain.

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