You don’t have to ask the DHL Stormers coaches how serious they are about chasing the win when they face the Vodacom Champions Cup log leaders Leinster in Dublin on Saturday. The message was sent out in crystal clear form when John Dobson announced his team last week.
Warrick Gelant, who had been man of the match in the previous game, Manie Libbok, BJ Dixon, Deon Fourie and other frontline players all watched the team that was selected lose to Racing 92 in what became their final Investec Champions Cup engagement from the stands at La Defense Arena in Paris last week.
That was an indication that Stormers director of rugby was pressing ahead with the plan that he had actually outlined as long ago as just before New Year, at the press conference after his team’s narrow win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the coastal URC derby.
He said then that the Stormers would give the Champions Cup a good try, starting with the remaining home game against the Sale Sharks, but he looked ahead to the trip to Europe later in January as a two match tour which would primarily focus on the game against Leinster.
He said that, given that Leinster would be losing a lot of players to the Ireland squad ahead of the start of the Guinness Six Nations, which starts a week after the Aviva Stadium game, he saw the game against the unbeaten Irish side as “an opportunity”.
Nonetheless, Dobson, like the other SA coaches, had to pay lip-service to the importance of the Champions Cup, which they all do want to be part of long term and it is just right now that is challenging.
So after the confusion, and occasional polite use of semantic guile to disguise the truth, which is that there have been other priorities, it was nice to be on a press conference call where for once there was no need for any verbal gerrymandering.
Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani, speaking from Dublin, had no need to hide anything. The Stormers will be going full strength, and the pressure is on them to win it.
PLAYING AGAINST AN UNBEATEN TEAM
But that also doesn’t mean Hlungwani and the Stormers will be underestimating the task at hand, which Hlungwani described as a “mountain to climb” despite the international calls that will mean that the Leinster team that plays on Saturday will be very different to the one that thumped Bath in the Champions Cup last weekend.
“We’re playing a very good team and they haven’t lost this season. They’ve got a few boys coming back from injury, and they’ll still have quite a bit of internationals,” said Hlungwani.
Indeed, we know of course that the Leinster Springbok lock RG Snyman won’t be away in Portugal with the Irish squad, and neither will All Black centre Jordie Barrett. That’s before you get to the players that Hlungwani was talking about coming back from injury and thus available this week, headed by wing James Lowe.
Dan Sheehan has also been released to play as he hasn’t travelled to Portugal, while France prop Leinster Rabah Slimani is set to be released by the Les Bleus to play on Saturday.
It is already well known that Leinster have enough depth to make a reasonable argument that their second string team would challenge to be the next best side in the URC, so the challenge facing the Stormers remains a big one as they seek to improve on the draw they managed at the RDS Arena in the corresponding game two seasons ago.
SETTLED IN DUBLIN SINCE SUNDAY
That game has largely been forgotten but as it took place after the Six Nations and many of the top Ireland players were back even though the side wasn’t completely at full strength, it should rank as one of the Stormers’ best performances in a game overseas.
They will be looking to produce something similar on Saturday night while also hoping the inclement conditions they experienced in March 2023 aren’t repeated.
“It is cold here, but not as cold as Paris was. We arrived here on Sunday, which means we had time to relax a bit,” said Hlungwani.
“We had a good training session on Monday but we only did it late, so we were able to relax on Monday morning. We had two good training sessions on Tuesday and we have another scheduled for Wednesday. It does make a difference to be here earlier.”
The Stormers only arrived in Paris three days before the Champions Cup fixture, which is standard when they fly overseas. So he’s right that the squad has an advantage they didn’t have last week, while the mindset of the team will be key.
While the Stormers lost by nine points to Racing, thus breaking what had been a three game winning sequence, they don’t believe the performance delivered last week was a step backward.
“It was a loss but I still think there is good stuff we took out of the game at the weekend,” said reserve flanker Paul de Villiers, who was a recent Junior Springbok captain.
“We built up nice momentum back in South Africa (by beating the Emirates Lions, Hollywoodbets Sharks and Sale Sharks) and I don’t think the Paris result means we have lost it. We know if we win this one then we are in a good position as we go into the derbies against the Bulls and the Lions and a few other games that are coming up in South Africa.
“So it will be good for us to ensure we do have momentum to take home with us so we can get back to SA where we were when we left. The aim is to get into the top eight of the URC as quickly as possible and then take it from there in the challenge for a top four finish.”
The Stormers are currently 10th, three positions up from where they were before their two home derbies over the festive season, but it is important to note that they have a game in hand on most of the teams immediately ahead of them. Indeed, their are only seven points separating the Stormers from third placed Cardiff.
That cues though how important this game is - they play the Bulls next on 8 February, and while they will be hosting that north/south derby the clashes between the two arch-rivals are always very intense and physical. They will be wanting to go into the game not only with the confidence that will come with having beaten mighty Leinster away, but also the better cushion provided by an improved log position.