Cape Town — The Stormers secured both a home quarter-final and the South African Shield in their United Rugby Championship 26-21 win over Scarlets on Saturday night.
Going into the game, the Stormers had to battle it out for the second spot in the log with both the Sharks and Munster having rivalled them for the second spot.
In Llanelli, the Stormers did enough to secure victory after a challenging contest.
With Sharks having lost to Ulster the night before, the Stormers just had to win their game against the Welsh side to lock down a home quarter final spot, while hoping that Leinster would be their dominant self against Munster.
Scarlets themselves had a lot to play for given that the Shield winners, along with the next four teams, qualify for the Champions Cup.
The home side got on the scoreboard first in the third minute with a penalty conversion after a breakdown penalty (0-3) by the visitors.
Scarlets struck again after a superb inside pass set Johnny Williams up for his touch down after some solid work at the set piece (0-10) in the seventh minute.
The Stormers responded well after good work by loose forward Hacjivah Dayimani set Leolin Zas up for their first try of the game and his 11th of the season (7-10).
The Welsh side bagged another three points after a breakdown penalty but the Stormers allowed them three more points (7-13) and, just like that, one of the areas that had been one of the strongest for the visitors going into the match saw them concede three more points (7-16).
On the stroke of half time, Evan Roos just gave another reminder of his quality as he barged over for a try to narrow the margin (14-16).
The Stormers had some heavy struggles at the start, but they seemed to put all of that behind them as they orchestrated the perfect start to the second half after a strong maul saw the backline do their thing with Ruhan Nel running a top line to dot down (21-16).
The hosts ran in another try after that, but the Stormers were intent on finishing their business.
After the Stormer went one-man down, Scarlets ran in another to level the scores with eight minutes to go.
Then, when it mattered most, Nel produced another beauty to seal the deal and go 26-21 up at full time.
IOL Sport