For a while listening to DHL Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani talk about the challenge his men face at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium this coming Saturday, it was possible he was talking about La Rochelle rather than Toulon.
It was all about how big and physical the Toulon players were, how strong they were as ball carriers and powerful at the breakdown.
Which is exactly the impression Stormers fans who were at DHL Stadium in Cape Town last year to see their side play two Investec Champions Cup games against La Rochelle would have felt about the then reigning double champions.
The Stormers defied the odds after taking a severe early pummelling to come back and win the opening Pool game against La Rochelle this time last year.
And they were decidedly unlucky to be edged out by the narrowest of margins by the same opponents in the Cape Town round of 16 game.
Even though they lost, with Manie Libbok missing a late match-winning conversion attempt into the teeth of a gale-force wind, that second clash with the French behemoths was confirmation that John Dobson’s team can compete with Europe’s best.
Rugby is heading to Gqeberha this weekend 🇿🇦🥳
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 3, 2024
The DHL Stormers kick off their #InvestecChampionsCup campaign against Toulon on Saturday.
Last time out in Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, it was Manie and Ruhan magic ✨ pic.twitter.com/s7QgI0xuRW
“Those performances against La Rochelle have given us some confidence to draw on,” agreed Hlunwani.
“There is a similarity between the French sides and how they play. I wouldn’t say it gives us an edge, but it gives us a step forward in our preparation. In the sense that we have played a team like Toulon before in the form of La Rochelle and we remember how we planned then to play against their big pack.”
A big pack is something that Toulon certainly have, and Hlungwani reckons it will be as physical and as hard in Gqeberha on Saturday as it was against La Rochelle 12 months ago.
“Toulon are a club that carries a lot of history. They have a very big pack, they are very physical, so it’s going to be a very tough and intense battle this week. But we will probably have our ways of trying to exploit their size and try to fight fire with fire in terms of their physicality.
"We’ve done our homework and feel we’re heading in the right direction in terms of our plan and we just have to execute it come Saturday.”
The way the Stormers planned to negate the La Rochelle strengths in the Pool game last December was to move their big players around by moving the ball away from them.
It didn’t quite work out that way, and they were sucked into a physical battle that didn’t please coach John Dobson.
However, partly because it was so incredibly hot on that summer afternoon in Cape Town, the French players did tire in the second half.
Whether that will happen again at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, where Saturday’s maximum will reach 24 degrees, against different opponents is something we will find out on the day.
But given the similarities between the teams, the Stormers should be better off from having played and beaten La Rochelle last season.
MIXED RECORD
The Stormers’ record against French teams in the two years they have played in the Champions Cup is a mixed one - they lost to Clermont-Auvergne away in their first season but comfortably beat them in the return game at home in a season where teams played just two opponents in the Pool phase, home and away.
Last year they beat La Rochelle at home and Stade Francais in a must win game in Paris in the group phase but lost to La Rochelle in the round of 16 match, albeit that they dominated large parts of that game and their ultimate defeat should hardly be seen as something that would have harmed their confidence.
Tickets for the Gqeberha game are selling well and while the Stormers will be playing the game nearly 800 kilometres away from the regular support base that they have pledged to make smile, they are confident that the people of the Eastern Cape will get in behind the team in the same passionate way that Capetonians do.
With a Champions Cup game being a level above the Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash against the Dragons that drew a big crowd for the Stormers two years ago, and a cricket test between the Proteas and Sri Lanka being played in the city at St George’s Park over the same weekend, there should be a proper big sport vibe in Gqeberha when Saturday arrives.
We are in Gqeberha for Round One of the Investec Champions Cup this weekend.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 2, 2024
🎟️ Tickets here https://t.co/TSxWo4c6mb#STOvRCT #iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/AiStb86nan