Watching Connacht’s win over Ulster has certainly helped fire up the DHL Stormers for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship semifinal, but it is the news that has filtered through to them from the ticket office that has really got Steven Kitshoff’s men pumped for Saturday.
There were 22 000 tickets sold for the DHL Stadium showdown with the Irish team within 24 hours of tickets going on sale and by lunch time on Wednesday that had increased to 32 000. The chances are the final figure will come close to beating the crowd of around 45 000 that created a record for attendance at a URC match at last week’s quarterfinal win over the Vodacom Bulls.
The skipper, who is expecting this to be his proper farewell game at the DHL Stadium after last week’s results conspired to give him an extra week, has acknowledged that the team knows they are expected to win and advance to the final. And that does bring extra pressure. However, he says the sense of responsibility of knowing so many are depending on them is firing up his team.
“I think it does increase the pressure on us to get through as we know the public expects us to win, but we have done our due diligence and we are going in 100 per cent prepared,” said Kitshoff.
“Watching and reviewing the Connacht game brought home the reality of what we need to do on Saturday. They are a physical side and have a good scrum and pack of forwards. They have a lot more threats after we watched the game than we thought they had.”
NO CHANCE OF STORMERS FEELING TOO COMFORTABLE
Kitshoff said the team had noted the comments of Connacht wing Mack Hansen earlier in the week that the visitors wanted the Stormers to continue to feel comfortable that they aren’t going to Ulster this weekend and are playing at home.
“I don’t want to speak too much out of the boardroom, but we did note that. Look, we know they are a team with dog (mongrel) and they have picked up form with a good run of wins. If we allow them to get their tails up it will be a long day at the office for us. We know that. They have had a long trip over the equator, so it will be hard for them, but we know we have to play well to win.
“But it is in our hands. It is up to us to ensure we pitch up with the right amount of intensity and the right amount of anger,” he added.
DOBSON SEES IT AS A 50/50 GAME
Several times during a midweek press conference in Stellenbosch, where the Stormers have been training this week, it was put to head coach John Dobson that his team would start as strong favourites and that it must be easier to build up to this game than for last year’s semifinal against Ulster. However, Dobson made it clear that he was going into the match with the view that it was 50/50. And he stressed that the anticipated crowd numbers and the video of Connacht’s win had put fire in his mens bellies.
“We are pretty fired up, we saw the Connacht win over Ulster and we saw their intensity and we saw their physicality. We know that Ulster are known for physicality so we have huge respect for what Connacht managed to do last week,” said Dobson.
“In a sense we feel we got out of jail because of that result, the Connacht win over Ulster, as it has given us a chance to play a semifinal in front of our home crowd and in these tough economic times it is stirring to see the numbers that are coming out to watch us. There were over 40 000 at the stadium last week for the quarterfinal and there will be more than 40 000 there again this week. We know times are tough, we know the sacrifices that have been made to come and watch us.
“That shows us that we have a fight and a responsibility. To be honest, we are not expecting to be playing a home final. Leinster are very good and Munster have injuries so we are not expecting the other semifinal result to go our way. So in this game we need to repay the faith of the people who support us.
“In a rugby sense maybe we are favourites because of our track record over the past two years at home, but we are not looking at it that way. We learned a lot from the Ulster game.”
PLAYING AS IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW
Dobson said he would be sitting with his cap in front of his face hardly able to look, which was the case when Connacht beat Ulster last week, if the Stormers have won through to the final and Munster are leading the later semifinal against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium, but he isn’t expecting that.
“The way we see it we are playing for a chance to play Leinster for the URC title at the Aviva. And we’d love to do that. To play a full strength Leinster in Dublin in such a showpiece game will be a huge experience for this group of players and really helpful going forward.
“Our job at the moment is just to win on Saturday. We will play it like there is no tomorrow,” added the Stormers coach.
In a sense it is easier to play this year’s semifinal like “there is no tomorrow” than it was last year because there is a two week break after this game as the Heineken Champions Cup final between Leinster and LaRochelle takes centre stage next weekend.
“If we win on Saturday it will be brilliant for us that there is a fortnight to the final as it means we can get around the usual travel problems by arriving in good time and we also know what Leisnter have to go through between now and then,” said Dobson.