Circumstances favour Stormers’ quest to change overseas form

The DHL Stormers will leave on an important Vodacom United Rugby Championship tour later this week with circumstances having smoothed the playing field for them in their quest to break what has become a long overseas drought in the competition.

The Stormers beat Stade Francais in the Investec Champions Cup in January of this year and more recently they also scored a good win in a friendly against Northampton Saints at Franklin Gardens in March.

But you have to go back to 8 October 2022 to when they last won a URC game in the northern hemisphere.

That was in Parma against Zebre, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu emerging as the man of the match in a 37-20 victory.

But the following week a long winning sequence that had started at the halfway point of the previous season in the URC was ended when they were held to a draw by the Ospreys in Swansea and a week later they were beaten by Cardiff.

Their best overseas URC result since then was the 22-all draw with a strong Leinster team on 24 March last year, a result that was particularly noteworthy in the sense that while they didn’t have all their international players playing for them, the Six Nations was over and there were Ireland players back in the home team.

Indeed, the perception that the Stormers are poor overseas or not suited to playing there does sometimes require some examination.

One of their best performances of this season for instance was the opening Champions Cup game against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.

The Stormers lost and conceded a late try that lost them a losing bonus point, but they were pressing for a famous win with three minutes to go and that was with a second string team.

Now that we’ve seen Glasgow Warriors beat just about all visitors to the Scotstoun since then, their last-gasp defeat in a game where they gave as good as they got and were actually unlucky to lose last January wasn’t a bad effort either.

And let’s not also forget that often when the Stormers tour, it is without their Springboks due to the timing of the trips.

All to play for on a crucial two-match @Vodacom #URC tour. #iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/eQeJJJbRMQ

— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) May 6, 2024

ALL THE BOKS ARE AVAILABLE

The timing is good this time, in the sense that the Boks, with the obvious exception of Deon Fourie who is out for the rest of the season, are all available for this tour, which takes in games against the Dragons in Neath on Friday night followed by a clash with Connacht in Galway the following Saturday.

The timing of those games for a start aids the Stormers for it means an eight day turnaround.

“An eight day turnaround will be perfect for us as it means we will be able to get to Galway in good time and then spend a whole week there getting used to the conditions and to the 4G surface that we will be playing on,” said Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani as the Stormers started the buildup week to Friday’s game on Monday.

The buildup actually started last week, which is another thing in the Stormers’ favour this time, and one of the reasons the round of 16 exit from the Champions Cup wasn’t such a bad thing for them - they’ve had a two week break since they last played.

“The week off really helped us, it would be tough for us to be leaving while the players are recovering from a game and then expect them to be in action again on the Friday night. This time we have enough time to get there feeling fully recovered and fresh, and next week we get that full training week in Galway. So it all works out quite well for us.”

A VENUE THAT HOLDS HAPPY MEMORIES

Friday night’s venue, the Rodney Parade in Newport, is where the Stormers scored their first ever overseas win in the URC, way back in October 2021, and it has good memories for Hlungwani and the team.

“It is not an artificial surface and is actually a really good field. I remember that game very well,” said Hlungwani.

However, one thing the Stormers will not be doing is going into the game thinking it will be easy based on the Dragons’ lowly log position.

“If you go in looking at the log position and being complacent it could be fatal and you are likely to be caught out. The Dragons pose a lot of strong challenges and you could be in trouble against them if they put you on the back foot. They have a good pack and that will be a good challenge for us.”

The Dragons probably haven’t been helped by the recent defeat the Stormers suffered at home to the Ospreys, as it means the Cape team will be traveling overseas with a healthy respect for Welsh regional rugby.

They also haven’t won in Wales in the URC since they beat Scarlets in the final league game of the 2021/2022 season.

A big boost for the Stormers as they depart is the return to fitness of first choice loosehead Sti Sithole.

“Sti has been training with us and we expect him to be up for selection,” said Hlungwani.

The squad for the tour will be announced on Tuesday and the team for the Dragons game announced on Thursday.