You’d think after they consolidated their position at the top of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log by beating their nearest challengers away from home the DHL Stormers would be satisfied, but that just isn’t in the nature of John Dobson’s coaching group and players.
As their forwards coach Rito Hlungwani states almost every time he goes in front of a press conference, the aim is always to improve - and it is the same in every game. And that was the case again from defence coach Norman Laker, who in looking ahead to the start of the Investec Champions Cup season, spoke of a need for a sharp improvement when they face Bayonne on Friday night.
Our Investec Champions Cup campaign kicks off in Bayonne on Friday night. #BAYvSTO #inittogether pic.twitter.com/1o6qJs1RgI
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 1, 2025
It wasn’t just words from Laker either, who’d rather spend the Euros he must get for his tour allowance on donuts, something he does for the entire playing group when they keep rugby’s equivalent of soccer’s clean sheet, than keep his money in his pocket because the opposition have crossed the Stormers line.
And in truth, if you watched only up until the 30th minute of last weekend’s game at Thomond Park, there was a lot to feel dissatisfied with. The Stormers defence looked disjointed in that period and the three tries Munster scored in building up a 21-6 lead came all too easily. The Stormers struggled to get their hands on the ball, made errors, and were unable to impose themselves.
From that moment onwards though they were in control, scoring 27 unanswered points over the last 50 minutes of the game to win 27-21 and lay sole claim to pole position on the URC log. Their power game was impressive in that period, but so was the quality of their defending. Clearly there were words at halftime, and according to Laker there have been words since then too.
“We were really disappointed with the first half as a group, we know we should have done much better in that period,” said Laker from Biarritz, where the Stormers are preparing for Friday night’s game against the French club.
“Given the way we prepared, it was very disappointing how it went in that period. When the bench came on it made a big difference, but we know we have a lot of things we have to work on. There was a lot of stuff that we worked on in the off season that was successfully implemented in the first phase of the season (when the Stormers won five times in five starts), but in this game it didn’t come off, at least not in the first half.
“We were not at our best and there was stuff we can definitely improve on and we weren’t pleased with. We have been addressing it with the team,” he added.
Yet while there was a noticeable gear shift when a power laden bench came onto the field as a unit four minutes into the second half, one of the members of that impact squad group, or Storm Squad if you like, lock JD Schickerling, said it was the work done by the starting team that laid the platform.
“We always knew that (gear shift) was going to be the plan. The guys who started had to chip away for us and our job was to finish the game. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We all know how good Munster are and we hadn’t won at that venue before.”
The Stormers are sitting pretty on the URC log and are a good way to achieving the minimum requirement of finishing in the top eight, which would mean they may need just two more wins in 12 games, but that won’t be their aim. They will want a home semifinal in that competition, and after exiting in the Pool phase last year, they are on a mission in the elite European competition that starts for them on Friday.
“Bayonne will be a really tough start for us. We are going into a whole new competition where what we have done in the URC doesn’t count for anything,” said Schickerling.
“It is going to be a massive challenge but we are looking forward to it. We have a short turnaround of just six days so not much time to get over the sore bodies from last week’s game but there will be a lot of emphasis on recovery. We have moved on quickly from the Munster win as we know we don’t have time to dwell on it and we are now ready for our next challenge.”
By all accounts Bayonne’s home ground is one of the more voluble and hostile venues in France, and that is saying something, and the home team haven’t tasted defeat there since the Vodacom Bulls turned them over in a round of 16 EPCR Challenge Cup game in April.
Like in the Munster game, there is a lot of talk about the impact of what the Boks did to the French national team a few weeks ago, and there is a hint of revenge in the air just to add to what should be a noisy atmosphere. However, Laker played the revenge aspect down when he rightly pointed out that a French club team won’t have as many Frenchmen in it as Munster had Irish players.
“They have Fijians, they have South Africans, they have players from all over the place, so I don’t think that will be their drive against us,” said the Stormers defence coach.
Schickerling said he “can’t anwer answer for their mindset, but what matters is how we play, we must just make sure our game plan and structures are in place and we are in control of the game as much as possible.”
The Stormers team for the Bayonne game will be announced on Thursday.