Stormers to emulate 2012 success
The Stormers will be looking to emulate the feat of the 2012 Super Rugby campaign – when they defeated the Highlanders – to get their tour off to a good note and provide them with valuable momentum for the remaining matches.
Speaking from their base in Queenstown, coach Allister Coetzee said that even though the past has no bearing on the upcoming match, they would need to produced a much improved kick-chase performance to rewrite the past trip to Otago.
"The one aspect we want to improve on is our kick-chase and we have a good understanding of what we want to do this weekend. The next couple of games should be a similar style. They [Highlanders] are a team that will punish you, especially from turnovers and one has to make sure to keep it structured and organised against them.
"They are definitely hurting from their loss to the Hurricanes and we need to be at our best to get back on the horse again and that is what we want as a group. We have learnt our lessons and now we need to make sure we get it right this week," he said
Coetzee stated they have done their homework on their opponents and have identified potential threats they can pose to the Cape side.
"The Highlanders are a team that puts their opponents under pressure with line speed and they are quite picky about when to attack the breakdown. They look to get numbers and width on their defence and force you to come off your line but we have a plan to nullify that and hopefully it will be executed this weekend.
"They are right up there with the top teams in the competition in terms of their line-out success rate. They are a good side who puts a lot of teams under pressure because they do a lot of things right.
"Malakai Fekitoa is a strong player who possesses immense acceleration and has confidence in himself to take the game to the opposition. It is important that we respect our system and work hard to present it to them [Highlanders]. There is no way a player can break the line if our mini-units are properly set. We have to work and hunt in units of four – so that's our challenge.
"It is important for us to not only build on our scrums but we also need to make sure that we benefit from being dominant. It is pointless if you scrum so well but the opposition still ends up with possession. We have to be wiser in picking our battles and put pressure on certain areas of the field," he added.
Twenty-six players are available for selection this week – captain Duane Vermeulen is sitting out as part of the agreement with SARU to rest the top Springboks at some point – with the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Mike Rhodes and Louis Schreuder all training well.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
@Tagels03
