The Ospreys are in Cape Town for their second round Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash and it wasn’t that long ago that the Welsh team arrived for their game against DHL Stormers given little hope.
Stormers coach John Dobson had perhaps given away his own underestimation of the Ospreys earlier in the season when, while explaining his decision to stick with a full-strength team in one of the games, he suggested “this isn’t the Ospreys we are playing against”. He was immediately reminded of that Zoom press conference that, in fact, the previous time the two teams had met, in Swansea the previous season, the game had ended in a draw.
That result, in fact, ended a long run of Stormers wins, which had included the 2022 URC final. And it was arguably the home game against the Ospreys in April 2024 that ended the Stormers’ hopes of securing what would then have been their third successive top-four log finish. Dobson went under-strength in that game, with Frans Malherbe as captain, and the defeat dented what was mounting as an impressive Stormers rearguard action.
The Stormers’ last game against the Ospreys also ended in defeat, that being in Wales last September in the opening game of the competition. The Stormers were pressing for a winning try shortly before the end but the Ospreys broke away to score and by winning more than seven they denied the Cape team a bonus point, which was the least they deserved from the game.
So there is a healthy rivalry developing between the two teams, and any chance of Stormers complacency was further eroded by the competitiveness the Ospreys showed against the Vodacom Bulls last week. It was a game played at altitude in the early afternoon so the fact the Ospreys were in it until quite deep into the second half was a warning to the Stormers.
“They are a team that never goes away. They’re a team we can’t take lightly, they’re going to challenge us,” said forwards coach Rito Hlungwani at the start of the buildup week to Friday night’s game at the DHL Stadium.
“So it’s important for us to really be focused and ready to try and improve on our last performance. They’ve got a strong pack – there is no weak pack in this competition – so we’ll be ready for a tough challenge up front.”
The 35-0 win over Leinster in the first round was an impressive start to the competition, and what was particularly impressive was the appearance that the Stormers have worked on areas that were exposed when Glasgow Warriors ended their run at the quarterfinal stage of last year’s competition.
The Stormers made a lot of errors at the Scotstoun but what was most disturbing was the fact that they were outmuscled. And Glasgow have been a team that has consistently exposed flaws in the Stormers’ mauling game, and they did so again.
Against Leinster the last thing Stormers fans would have had to complain about was the mauling, with the Stormers scoring twice from driving mauls and generally putting the Leinster pack into reverse mode for much of the game.
“We want to have two or three ways of scoring tries because at the end of the day it’s all about putting points on the board,” said Hlungwani.
“We will definitely use the maul as much as we can, especially when it’s working. But we still want to score from counter-attacks or other moves. We need to have that element of deception.”
Hlungwani, as he tends to, added that there is still a lot of room for improvement for the Stormers despite their whitewashing of the champions. It is after all early season, and there was rust evident at the DHL Stadium from both sides.
“Probably just our timing. Timing in the lineouts, timing in how we link up with the backs, and that usually comes from playing more games,” he said. “The transfer of the ball between forwards and backs I felt could’ve been more clinical. We want to be better and you have to continuously improve.”
The Stormers team for Friday night’s game will be announced on Thursday.
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