The DHL Stormers were rightly cockahoop after their 30-16 win over Clermont-Auvergne and so they should have been - a plum home fixture in the round-of-16 stage of the Heineken Champions Cup would have been beyond their wildest dreams this time last year. Back then, they were just aiming to be part of the 2022/2023 edition of the prestigious competition.
However, playing in two different competitions does have its challenges for the South African teams, so the Stormers couldn’t celebrate too hard. The coaches and some of the players who featured against Clermont had to be at Cape Town International early on Sunday ready for another long flight to the northern hemisphere via Doha.
They only returned from their most recent trip last Tuesday, so when the tour squad is announced later on Monday, it should not surprise that many of the players who dug deep and then thrived in the 30-16 win over their French opponents at the DHL Stadium won’t be on the plane heading to Belfast.
It’s also a short turnaround, with the Ulster game scheduled for Friday. Coach John Dobson already gave an indication on Saturday night that man of the match against Clermont, centre Dan du Plessis, won’t be playing at the Kingspan. Neither will the Springboks who start their resting protocols - Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse, and the currently injured Frans Malherbe.
Lock Marvin Orie will join those three in resting from next week, which is significant as lock is the area where the Stormers have been most impacted by injury. The squad has yet to be announced, but Orie’s presence suggests it doesn’t appear that the Stormers will go with a complete second-string team and Dobson can be taken at face value when he says “we are going to Belfast to get something from the game”.
ULSTER IN FORM
That might be difficult given that Ulster have suddenly hit form in the past two weeks, with Dan McFarland’s men having some momentum after following up a tenacious performance against Champions Cup title holders LaRochelle away, where they lost off the last move of the game, by avenging their big first round defeat to the Sale Sharks. It was enough to sneak them into the last 16, where they will travel to arch-rivals Leinster.
Ruhan Nel hasn’t played much so he will be there, so will Evan Roos, who Dobson said on Saturday night was a huge boost for his team heading into a clutch of under-strength URC games.
“Evan was back to being his old Evan. I didn’t think he was as good in the early part of the season as he was last year, but in this game he was back to being his most formidable,” said Dobson.
Roos forced his way over for a try within minutes of coming on as one of a clutch of replacements that changed the game for the Stormers. Up to then the obstinate French team was defending well and keeping themselves in the game, but once Roos, Jean-Luc du Plessis and Herschel Jantjies came on, it was pretty much the Stormers’ game.
“I was very frustrated at halftime but maybe we sometimes just don’t give the opposition enough credit,” said Dobson.
“I see they made 112 tackles in the first half. That is a phenomenal effort. They made 112 and just missed three. I was hard on the players, saying they didn’t play well, but sometimes you play as well as you are allowed to.”
Indeed, and when you make 112 tackles it also saps energy.
“Although we were trailing at halftime, I knew how much pressure we were exerting and defending always takes up more energy,” agreed skipper Kitshoff.
“So at halftime I felt that although the scoreboard didn’t reflect it, we did have the momentum. And that proved to be the case.”
REPLACEMENTS
The replacements did help open Clermont up, none more so than Du Plessis, who with his more direct approach off the snappy service of Jantjies got the Stormers’ rythmn going. Both he and Kade Wolhuter will be in Belfast, but it is likely that Du Plessis will play.
“JL brings some spark to the game. It is not nice to take players off early, and to do it before halftime would have been inhumane, but the replacements definitely made a difference,” said Dobson.
Talking of replacements, one player who will definitely be in Belfast is a player who has plenty of experience but has yet to play for the Stormers - former Sharks and Bulls lock Ruben van Heerden. The 25-year-old has returned home from Exeter Chiefs, although to put it more accurately, he has headed to Belfast, where he will link up with his new teammates.
“The squad will be announced on Monday but Ruben will be with us this week,” confirmed Dobson.
With Orie not available for the game that follows this one, which is the derby against Van Heerden’s former Sharks teammates in Durban, the newcomer has arrived just in time. The Stormers will be hoping Gary Porter is ready to play again too.