Jaque Fourie returned to haunt his former team the Lions as the Stormers began their 2010 Super 14 campaign with an easy 26-13 victory in Johannesburg.
The South Africa centre, who moved to Cape Town during the off-season, scored one of two tries for the visitors - the other going to Joe Pietersen.
The Lions tried desperately to get back into the game with Michael Killian scoring what turned out to be a consolation in a second half that saw the hosts outscore their opponents 7-0.
In what was largely a scrappy affair at Coca-Cola Park, an early exchange of penalties between Pietersen and Earl Rose was followed by the Stormers slowly beginning to dominate.
However, their two major signings, Bryan Habana and Fourie, were largely anonymous as three more penalties from their fullback stretched the lead to nine points after 27 minutes.
The Lions continued their struggle to carve out any real openings, with their inexperience also counting against them - six penalties conceded during this time clearly not helping their cause.
But Dick Muir's men remained tight on defence, offering hardly any try-scoring opportunities to their opponents.
They managed to pull back a penalty on the half-hour mark when Schalk Burger was penalised for being off-side - Springbok utility back Rose making no mistake with his 35-yard strike.
The constant Stormers pressure, though, finally paid dividends as the floodgates began to open in the minutes before half time.
First Pietersen was sent on his way after being set up by Juan de Jongh and Habana's exchange of passes, followed by a second try which came via strong hold-up play by Andries Bekker that allowed Dewaldt Duvenage to put Fourie through.
Both were converted by Pietersen, handing his side a 26-6 lead at the break.
Muir made sweeping changes at half-time and was almost rewarded with his side camping on the Stormers line for eight minutes upon the resumption.
But it was constantly thwarted by the defence of the Cape side and saw the chance go begging.
That seemed to break their spirit as the game began to amble on with the Lions now doing most of the defending.
However, a lifeline arrived in the 62nd minute when Heinke van der Merwe popped a pass to Killian just inside the opposing half and the replacement winger found some space to race away to score under the post.
Rose converted to bring his side to within 13 of Alastair Coetzee's team, but the Lions never really threatened any further as they slipped to defeat.