John Dobson, Stormers director of rugby, says they would have loved to have played the United Rugby Championship (URC) play-off against Glasgow Warriors at the DHL Stadium in cape Town, but for the Stormers to progress and become what they want to become, they also have to win play-offs on the road.
“So, in a funny way, I’m welcoming it. I think it’s good for us,” says Dobson.
“It feels like there’s an opportunity here, rather than a threat. We don’t feel like we’re under massive pressure, we’re excited about going overseas for a few weeks now.
“We’ve scrapped to get through here and now it’s a bonus. We’re taking some confidence from how we’ve fought our way (away from home) since (the home defeat to) Ospreys. We did well against Dragons, Connacht.
“We did well at Leicester, at Stade and in the friendly in Northampton, so we’re confident about that. But we [also] have to be honest and say that Connacht and the Dragons aren’t in the URC play-offs and Glasgow has been close to the top the whole time, so it’s going to have to be a step up for us.”
One of the major obstacles with travelling for matches in the URC competition is the travel itself. The Stormers have hosted all six of their play-off games over the last two seasons, so they will be in unchartered territory.
“It’s the first time for us, we’ve hosted every URC play-off we could. We’ve told the guys to pack for a few weeks, but it’s all about this Saturday. But the nature of it, it’s a very different feeling to a tour because it’s a union’s version of a Test match.
“The whole thing is about the focus on this week. But it’s not all for us; we don’t know if we’re going to Limerick, Pretoria or home on Sunday.”
An even bigger challenge is their recent record against Glasgow, who have beaten the Stormers in their last two matches against them.
“I think we’ve got unfinished business up there,” Dobson explained. “We’ve had two really tough games there where a few things haven’t gone our way, it’s a record we want to put straight, so…
“The game we played against them in January, it took a grubber at the end (for them to win it) and they really did catch us with their depth in the way they played. Last year (November) we went without our (World Cup) Springboks, and it was one of those nights where everything went wrong in terms of the set piece, the cards, Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) was charged down after a restart – it was just a car crash.
“(But) We’re not going there daunted, (we’ve got) a little bit of optimism, we’ve taken all that Glasgow could throw at us and there’s not much between us (as teams), so it’s game on.”
Coached by former Cheetahs coach, Springbok assistant coach and Italy’s ex-coach and head of high-performance, Franco Smith, fourth-placed Glasgow have been one of the front runners in the competition.
They only lost their place at the top of the URC table after their tour of South Africa, thanks to a narrow defeat by the Bulls and an upset by the Lions at Ellis Park.
Glasgow have turned Scotstoun into a fortress where they hardly ever lose.
“They’ve done a great job there. At one stage it looked as if they might finish first. I think what we must understand about them is not the paradigm of Scottish rugby struggling,” explained Dobson
“Their national team has done much better and they’re a big budget team. If you look at that team, you don’t get that many internationals for free – there are some big, big players out there. They’re well-coached and we know what’s coming, the stadium is a curious stadium, and we know their style of rugby.
“As much as they’ve got this great running ball-in-hand game, they and Ulster score a lot of tries from lineouts. I think 61% of their tries come from lineouts. Also, they’re a big maul team and on that 4G (pitch])the maul is very hard to stop.
“So, we know what’s coming; it’s the old adage of we’ve got to stop it.”
Fullback Warrick Gelant will be back after missing the Lions game for precautionary measures on a mild niggle
This means that Feinberg-Mngomezulu wil either move into the centres or to the bench as he covers flyhalf, inside centre and fullback.
