Stormers battle to bonus-point win against Dragons
Stormers consolidated their United Rugby Championship (URC) play-off position with a bonus-point win over Dragons at Rodney Parade.
Two tries apiece from wings Angelo Davids and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and 19 points from South Africa fly-half Manie Libbok sealed the win with Evan Roos also crossing.
Dragons had dominated the opening exchanges and built up an early 11-point lead with a try from Harri Keddie and two Will Reed penalties.
Outstanding Wales number eight Aaron Wainwright also crossed, but Stormers' class told in the final quarter with four tries as they took advantage of home prop Rodrigo Martinez being shown a yellow card.
Stormers have consolidated their fifth place in the URC table, with the top eight sides qualifying for the play-offs in June.
This was the final home game for Dragons of the season and they stay 15th in the league.
Their final two fixtures are away at Ospreys on Saturday, 18 May before Welsh rugby's 'Judgement Day' meeting with Scarlets at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday, 1 June.
Dragons have had a busy couple of weeks on and off the field, with chair David Buttress announcing he is stepping down and Rhys Blumberg appointed as chief executive.
They have also finally appointed a defence coach in former Ospreys and New Zealand number eight Filo Tiatia, while there has been a busy recruitment drive for next season.
Wales forward Shane Lewis-Hughes, Tonga number eight Solomone Funaki, Australian lock Steve Cumming and Aussie centre Harry Wilson have agreed moves.
Ex-Stormers wing Chris Hollis made his Dragons debut against his former club after joining the Welsh region on trial.
Stormers, who won the URC in 2022 and were runners-up last season, included Springboks World Cup winners Frans Malherbe and Libbok in their ranks.
Dragons' early attacks were rewarded with a Reed penalty, a lead increased as flanker Keddie was driven over from a line-out before Reed again hit the target to take the lead to 11 points.
Stormers responded with a Libbok penalty and took advantage of winning the aerial battle with an opportunistic try.
Impressive full-back Warrick Gelant glided through the Dragons defence and his clever kick was gathered by Davids to score.
Libbok converted to bring Stormers to within one point at half-time in an opening 40 minutes largely dominated by the hosts.
Former Dragons prop Brok Harris came off the Stormers replacements bench for the second half and the 39-year-old helped win a scrum penalty which Libbok slotted over to give the visitors the lead for the first time.
Reed almost immediately restored the Dragons advantage and the visitors had to be content with a third Libbok penalty as their scrum started to dominate.
Dragons brought on fly-half Angus O'Brien for his 100th league appearance and he was involved and added the conversion to the second try scored by Wainwright.
That restored the Dragons lead, but Stormers responded with a second Davids try that levelled the scores before a Libbok touchline conversion.
O'Brien was forced off injured which forced a backline reshuffle as centre Hughes slotted in at fly-half, Sio Tomkinson moved into the midfield with scrum-half Blacker switching to the wing and number nine Morgan Lloyd making his senior debut.
Replacement prop Martinez was shown a yellow card for persistent scrum penalties and Stormers made made their numbers tell with three tries in the last eight minutes.
Number eight Roos was driven over before replacement wing Feinberg-Mngomezulu crossed for two late tries.
Dragons: Jordan Williams; Rio Dyer, Steff Hughes (capt), Aneurin Owen, Chris Hollis; Will Reed, Dane Blacker; Rhodri Jones, Elliot Dee, Chris Coleman, Matthew Screech, George Nott, Sean Lonsdale, Harri Keddie, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Rodrigo Martinez, Dmitri Arhip, James Benjamin, Taine Basham, Morgan Lloyd, Angus O’Brien, Sio Tomkinson.
Sin-bin: Rodrigo Martinez 71
Stormers: Warrick Gelant; Suleiman Hartzenberg, Wandisile Simelane, Dan du Plessis, Angelo Davids; Manie Libbok, Herschel Jantjies; Sti Sithole, Joseph Dweba, Frans Malherbe, Salmaan Moerat (capt), Ruben van Heerden, Willie Engelbrecht, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos.
Replacements: Andre-Hugo Venter, Brok Harris, Neethling Fouche, Adre Smith, Hacjivah Dayimani, Stefan Ungerer, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)
Assistant referees: Maickel English & Gareth Newman (WRU)
TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)
