JJ Engelbrecht celebrated his return to the Stormers starting line-up with a brace of tries in the South African side's 34-18 win over the Melbourne Rebels in Cape Town on Friday afternoon.
The Stormers and the Rebels went into their Super Rugby clash off the back of three successive defeats each, and were hoping to keep their playoff hopes alive with a win at Newlands. The Rebels fought to the very end, but the Stormers returned to winning-ways by outscoring their opponents by four tries to two.
The Rebels opened the scoring through a Jack Debreczeni penalty in the fifth minute, but Damian Willlemse replied six minutes later for the Stormers with a three-pointer of his own.
Debreczeni converted a second penalty in the 11th minute, but it would be the Stormers who scored the first try of the match. Inside centre Damian de Allende ran straight through the Rebels defence in the 15th minute after taking the ball from a lineout.
Stormers outside centre EW Viljoen was denied a try in the 31st minute after De Allende was blown up for obstruction in the build up of the try. However, Engelbrecht would score in the left corner two minutes later after a lovely floated pass by Willemse.
The Stormers extended their lead to 24-6 four minutes after halftime when Dillyn Leyds followed up a kick by scrumhalf Dewald Duvenhage.
But the Rebels finally hit back in the 53rd minute when Sefanaia Naivalu rounded off a wonderful team try that was 17 phases in the making. Naivalu then scored his second try in the 75th minute to bring the Rebels within nine points of the home team.
However, Engelbrecht would have the last say in the match when he completed his brace to keep the Stormers' playoff hopes alive.