Scarlets play-off hopes hit by home defeat to Stormers

Scarlets’ hopes of claiming a play-off spot were dealt a significant blow after losing a hard-fought encounter 29-17 to a strong Stormers side.

The game was in the balance throughout but Stormers had the edge in terms of creation and outscored their hosts by four tries to two.

Ben Loader, Deon Fourie, Andre Hugo-Venter and Leolin Zas scored tries for the South African side with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicking a penalty and three conversions.

Ellis Mee and Ioan Nicholas touched down in reply for Scarlets with Ioan Lloyd converting both and adding a penalty, but it was not enough to prevent the Welsh side from suffering a seventh defeat of the season, leaving them 12th in the standings.

After a scrappy start to the match, Stormers took the lead in the 13th minute with a well-constructed try. Full-back Warrick Gelant was heavily involved in the move, which ended with former London Irish player Loader squeezing his way over in the corner.

Within three minutes, Scarlets were further behind when a clean break from Gelant split the home defence to shreds before Wandisile Simelane raced away to create the try for flanker Fourie.

Fourie departed soon after that having been dazed in a heavy collision and Scarlets took advantage when a long pass from Gareth Davies gave Mee a simple touchdown.

However, on the stroke of half-time, Scarlets were dealt a double blow when first prop Alec Hepburn was sin-binned for a no-arms tackle on Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who got to his feet to knock over the resulting penalty.

Scarlets trailed 15-7 at the interval but despite Hepburn’s absence, they began the second half strongly and a period of pressure was rewarded when Nicholas forced his way over.

Hepburn returned but Stormers put daylight between the teams when Zas sped away to score from a pre-planned line-out move which bemused the opposition.

A simple penalty from Lloyd set up a tense finish but Stormers secured a bonus-point victory when replacement hooker Venter finished off a driving line-out.