Play-off place in sight after Stormers' win

The Stormers broke through for their first win in Canberra with a grinding 16-3 victory over the hapless ACT Brumbies yesterday to keep their steady march towards the Super Rugby play-offs on track.

The Cape Town-based side were held to two penalty goals in the first half, but converted a try after the break and defended their lead grimly to maintain third place with three rounds to play in the southern hemisphere competition.

The Brumbies, playing only for pride at the tail end of a dismal season that has yielded only two wins, took a 3-0 lead in the 11th minute through a penalty goal to inside centre Christian Lealiifano but went scoreless thereafter, denied time and again by handling errors and the Stormers' miserly defence.

"We don't mind the four points but it was pretty nasty out there, pretty cold here in Canberra," Stormers skipper Schalk Burger said in a televised interview on a chilly night in the Australian capital. "Great defensive effort and good work… we just played territory and closed the game out."

The Stormers' defensive line proved rock-solid throughout, denying an almost certain try to the Brumbies in the 24th minute when winger Gio Aplon tackled lock Mitchell Chapman on the try line at the left corner, dislodging the ball.

The South African side later saw off a 32-phase assault as the Brumbies tried desperately to conjure two converted tries in the last minutes to snatch victory.

Fly-half Kurt Coleman slotted penalties in the 21st and 37th minute to put the Stormers 6-3 up at half-time and Francois Louw scored the match's only try five minutes after the break.

The burly flanker barged over left of the posts after taking a quick pass from a ruck on the line following a lineout steal that went horribly wrong for the Brumbies and ended with the ball back in the Stormers' possession deep in the 22. Aplon slotted a 71st-minute penalty, the match's final score, to give the visitors breathing space to see off the Brumbies' late challenge.

"We had a lot of defending to do. I think it took a fair bit out of us… there weren't too many holes there for us," said Brumbies stand-in skipper Stephen Moore.

In New Zealand, Wikus van Heerden planted a last-minute try to hand the Lions a dramatic upset win over the Highlanders in Dunedin and put the home side's play-off hopes in jeopardy.

The Highlanders, clinging to sixth in the standings and the final wildcard place for the post-season, held a 22-19 lead in the dying moments but were stunned when lock Van Heerden barged over the line under a pile of players in the left-hand corner to seal the win with a minute to spare.

The victory was the Lions' third for the season but the result could mean the Highlanders slip to eighth with three rounds to play in the southern hemisphere competition.