The DHL Stormers will head to France this week to face Toulon in their Investec Champions Cup round of 16 tie with clarity about what most needs improving if they are to progress further in both that competition and get the job done in the remaining Vodacom URC league games that follow.
The Stormers’ 33-14 win over Edinburgh at the DHL Stadium in their 14th round URC game was, as their director of rugby John Dobson put it afterwards, a case of “job done”.
But in television interviews he also admitted that there were aspects of the performance that were dire, and he’d be guilty of being an ostrich that buries it’s head in the sand if he didn’t acknowledge that there’s a lot that isn’t perfect about the Stormers right now and requires working on.
After the game he pointed to a fascinating fact that both sums up where the area that the Stormers are most coming short is, but a stat which at the same time should be a source of huge confidence. The Stormers are second in the URC when it comes to getting into the opposition 22, but only rank 13th when it comes to conversion rate.
“That is a massive discrepancy,” agreed Dobson, who pointed to impatience as one of the reasons for the bizarre difference.
There was definitely impatience evident in the first half against Edinburgh, perhaps best illustrated by the quick tap penalty that Sfefan Ungerer only succeeded in knocking on, thus making it a completely wasted penalty.
But the fact that the Stormers are getting into the opposition 22 as often as they are, as pointed out by attack coach Dawie Snyman last week, is a positive.
“It is a good sign that we are creating the opportunities and getting the field position, it would be much more of a problem if after games we were wondering how we were ever going to put ourselves in a position to score,” said Snyman.
You could say that if that what was said before the game and yet the same problem persisted that is concerning, but the reality is that often in that situation it just takes a small change, a little flick of the switch, and the team that is boasting that kind of dominance on the field will soon be translating it onto the scoreboard.
And as Dobson said in his television interview after the final whistle, the Stormers can’t be doing that badly if they have 51 points after 14 games, which puts them second on the log behind Glasgow Warriors.
So while there are reasons for the Stormers fans to be concerned when it comes to the error rate, their team is managing to attain a level of dominance in games that gives them a chance of challenging for silverware in the business end of both competitions they are playing in.
Knock-out rugby in the Investec Champions Cup this weekend. #RCTvSTO #inittogether pic.twitter.com/yktJhZzmyc
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) March 30, 2026
The poor conversion rate aside, the Stormers were the physically superior team against the Vodacom Bulls, at least after the first 20 minutes of their game in Pretoria, and against the Dragons and Edinburgh and they’ve picked up 15 log points out of a possible 15 from those three games.
At the same time, as we saw when the Sharks came to town at the end of January and ended the Stormers’ hitherto unbeaten run in the competition, warning signs that become evident when you are winning do need to be heeded.
It felt like some chickens were coming home to roost when the Stormers’ errors were punished in that game, and with all due respect to the Dragons and Edinburgh, the games they play from now until the end of the season are against much tougher opposition.
When it comes to the URC, the Stormers are set to host Connacht in mid-April and Glasgow Warriors a week later before they head overseas to play Ulster and Cardiff. All of those teams are either in top four or top eight contention, and Ulster and Cardiff could be playing with a level of desperation when the Stormers visit them in April.
Which is where the importance of getting it right against Toulon comes in. Dobson has spoken of a desire to go as far as possible in the Champions Cup but given that they are playing the first knock-out game away from home it does amount to a free hit in the sense that a team that travels across the equator for a knock-out game, particularly when France is the destination, should always be seen as the underdogs.
Toulon are a tough team to play against and they physically bossed the Stormers in their one previous game in the Champions Cup, which was a group game in Gqeberha in late 2024.
If they deliver a more clinical performance, meaning they convert their opportunities better, it should inspire confidence and create some momentum heading into the two home games but in particular for their two tough away games in the final fortnight of the URC regular season.