VIDEO: Stormers to rely on Boks to end Euro tour woes
REACTION: The Stormers will rely heavily on their Springboks for their upcoming two-match United Rugby Championship tour.
The Stormers got their top-eight finish quest back on track with a comfortable 42-12 bonus-point win over Leinster in Cape Town on Saturday.
The five-try win was a massive improvement following the unexpected defeat to Ospreys in Round 14.
The Cape Town-based side is fifth in the URC standings, six points behind fourth-placed Bulls and six points ahead of Lions, who are in 11th place.
Following the break due to the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, John Dobson’s men will embark on a two-week tour where they will take on the Dragons in Wales and Connacht in Ireland.
With just three rounds of league matches remaining, before play-offs, the Stormers’ Director of Rugby Dobson emphasised the importance of securing back-to-back wins on tour.
Dobson added the defeat to Ospreys has put his team in a desperate position.
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“The previous tour was the start of the season. We played Glasgow Warriors, which we knew would be tough,” Dobson said.
“We knew we would come home and have to catch up.
“But the loss to Ospreys at home knocked us properly.”
Dobson further explained: “The devastation of that result against Ospreys was that we could have finished that weekend two points behind the Bulls, looking for a home playoff. That’s pretty much unrecoverable.
“Now, it’s a must-win tour.
“We’ve never had that sort of feeling before – a level of desperation. We will be taking our Springboks, so this will be a different mindset from the first tour.
“It’s the full metal jacket to try to win every game.”
Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat, who missed the first tour due to a pectoral injury, said having their Springboks, like Frans Malherbe, Manie Libbok and Damian Willemse, on tour will be a big advantage.
The last time the Stormers visited the Northern Hemisphere they failed to record a single win from their four-match tour. They suffered defeats to Glasgow Warriors (20-9), Benetton (20-17), Munster (10-3) and Cardiff (31-24).
“We have not been great on tour,” Moerat admitted, adding: “The team realises that.
“I don’t think our approach is that much different from our home games. And I really don’t know what it could be on the road.
“But we know it is a must-win tour, in that respect we never had anything like that before.
“We got our Springboks. Previously we have not toured with them, so that helps.
“I think we need a little bit of calm heads on tour because sometimes you get ahead of yourselves.
“It is going to be interesting.”
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Reflecting on the team’s overall performance against Leinster, Dobson said he was pleased with how the team responded following the defeat to Ospeys the week before.
The Stormers copped a lot of criticism for their performance against the Welsh team. The side was accused of forcing offloads and not respecting the ball.
However, the Cape Town franchise stuck to their attacking game plan and outscored Leinster five tries to two.
“You could see we still lacked a bit of confidence and some of the same stuff was there in the first half,” Dobson noted.
“But the way we fought through that, makes me very proud.
“We are not going to change how we play, we just all learned last week to be a bit more circumspect and earn the right with strong carries, which is where guys like Salmaan, Joseph Dweba and Evan Roos were exceptional.
He added: “It didn’t build confidence, being in the corner that we were in, so it’s a massive credit to them for the way they fought.
“It was a really compelling performance.”
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