As anticipated DHL Stormers coach John Dobson has made 14 changes for Saturday’s key Investec Champions Cup game against La Rochelle at the DHL Stadium.
The team that played so well in the opening competition game at Welford Road in Leicester last week always had a distinctly second string look to it and that was confirmed when Dobson on Friday retained just Englishman Ben Loader in the side that will face down the tournament champions.
Deon Fourie returns on the flank and assumes the captaincy ahead of tighthead prop Neethling Fouche, who has led the team in most of the full strength games before the Springbok return from the World Cup and also in their first game back when the Stormers hosted Zebre in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in Stellenbosch.
Fourie, with his experience both in this competition and now as a World Cup winner, always looked the likely man to lead in the absence of the injured appointed captain Salmaan Moerat once the side was back to full strength.
There are no real surprises in the team, which is pretty close to the one that beat Zebre the last time they played on home soil.
“We were considering 15 changes but Ben Loader did really well last week and we felt he should play in this game,” said Dobson.
Damian Willemse continues at inside centre, with Warrick Gelant back for Clayton Blommetjies at fullback, and Leolin Zas returning on the left wing to complete a dynamic back three combination in a game where the Stormers will be looking to move their opponents around and will be trying to avoid an arm-wrestle with the formidable La Rochelle pack.
“This competition is new to South Africans so I don’t think people realise just what a monster we are up against on Saturday,” said Dobson.
“Even though they lost they eventually overpowered Leinster at forward last week. They have a really good scrum and maul but we know that it is their power game we are going to have to be on top of. So we have to sustain our physicality on defence. I don’t want to be disrespectful to our pack, but we aren’t used to playing a forward unit like this one and I don’t think it will be helpful to us to go toe to toe with them.
“They are also an 80 minute team, as we saw in last year’s final at the AVIVA in Dublin when they came back from a huge deficit to win at the death. But both of us played in very different conditions last week to what we are playing in tomorrow. It is expected to be 28 degrees and it is always hotter in the stadium than outside and we are a bit more used to it than they are so maybe we can tire them out by moving their big men about.”
LACK OF FAMILIARITY MAY LEAD TO SMALLER CROWD
It looks like the lack of familiarity with the Champions Cup and the European teams may lead to a smaller crowd at the DHL Stadium than there should be for a game against what Dobson reckons is probably the best club team in the world, with only Crusaders in New Zealand (and Leinster to be fair) challenging that contention.
However, the biggest crowd in last week’s first round was 19 000 at Welford Road for the game between the Leicester Tigers and Stormers and the Stormers people are confident that can be beaten on Saturday.
“If La Rochelle had beaten Leinster last week they might have sent an under-strength team but they are coming to us full loaded and really determined to win. If we can get a win over one of the top teams in the world it will be huge, people really don’t understand the monster we are playing on Saturday,” said the Stormers coach.
“We understand that our fans might have had to choose games at this time of the year. There was the Cape Town Sevens last week, next week we play the Vodacom Bulls and then we host the Sharks. Those are all big occasions and we as a team know we are entering a critical period. If we win all three of these games obviously it will be huge for us, as it will mean we are almost through to the next round in the Champions Cup and have beaten the champions and we would have established ourselves properly on the URC log. If we win two out of three that will be par.”
IT'S A KNOCK-OUT FIXTURE
Dobson said that although he didn’t want to give this message to the players, he and his fellow coaches have acknowledged that this game is effectively a knock-out fixture.
“You’ve seen what a tough Pool we are in. It is the pool of death. Our next home game against Sale Sharks will be every bit as tough as this one and then we go to France to play Stade Francais. We recognise that if we don’t win against La Rochelle we are probably out of the race for a round of 16 place.”
DHL STORMERS TEAM: Warrick Gelant, Ben Loader, Ruhan Nel, Damian Willemse, Leolin Zas, Manie Libbok, Herschel Jantjies, Evan Roos, Hacjivah Dayimani, Deon Fourie (captain), Ruben van Heerden, Adre Smith, Neethling Fouche, Joseph Dweba, Ali Vermaak. Replacements: Andre-Hugo Venter, Sti Sithole, Brok Harris, Connor Evans, Ben-Jason Dixon, Marcel Theunissen, Paul de Wet, Courtnall Skosan.