Bok reveals Stormers' plan to beat Hurricanes
SUPER RUGBY SPOTLIGHT: The Hurricanes will have to brace themselves for a very powerful pack when they face the Stormers in their opening Super Rugby game at Newlands.
Oozing with confidence from the Springboks’ World Cup-winning campaign, Steven Kitshoff was quite open about his side’s vital weapon and the game plan needed to take down the men from Wellington.
Despite the absence of locks Cobus Wiese and JD Schikerling in their pack due to injury, Kitshoff believes the side have suitable replacements to fill the void.
“We definitely have the pack that can put any team under pressure,” Kitshoff said, adding: “When it comes to line-outs, mauling and scrummaging…I really think we have the personnel in our camp to make our mark, especially against the Hurricanes and for the remainder of Super Rugby.
“The [Hurricanes] are not the most aggressive scrummagers I’ve seen but they do have a good platform from which they play and they try and get their loose forwards into the game as quick as possible. And on the other side, they also try to dominate in loose play with their flanks.
He added: “However, I think if you make them [the Hurricanes] turn around and play backwards, then you take their big outside backs out of the game,”
The Stormers’ scrummaging issues were exposed by the Sharks in their warm-up game, however, according to the 27-year-old, all will be sorted ahead of Saturday’s clash.
“Yes, we did struggle a bit, but we’ve talked about it and worked on it and I think we can only look ahead from here. You can never take the warm-up games’ results as stock-standard but I think the guys have worked really hard over the past two weeks to get the confidence and dominance back,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Peter-Steph du Toit, who has not played since the World Cup final due to an injury niggle, is another concern for the side.
Nonetheless, new forwards coach Rito Hlungwani was very optimistic that the World Rugby player of the year will be ready to face a Hurricanes team set to be without two All Black forwards in Ardi Savea and Dane Coles.
“Pieter-Steph has been training well, really well,” Hlungwani said.
“He’s a good player and he’s looking really good so I would anticipate having him in the team to play the Hurricanes,”
The Stormers will name the team to face the Hurricanes on Thursday.
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