Adr Smith and Leolin Zas of DHL Stormers tackle Patrick Schickerling of Glasgow Warriors during the United Rugby Championship at Cape Town Stadium.
Image: BackpagePix
The Stormers have made peace with the fact that they are unlikely to overtake Glasgow at the top of the United Rugby Championship as the competition enters its final round this weekend.
The Warriors sit on top of the table with 60 points, with the Capetonians a solitary point behind on 59, but the Warriors are expected to have the easier fixture this weekend — they head to Belfast to play an Ulster side that will surely rest star players ahead of next Friday’s Challenge Cup final (22 May).
In contrast, the Stormers travel to a Cardiff side desperate for URC log points — they are precariously placed in seventh and could slip out of the top eight if they lose. In-form Connacht, in ninth, are a point behind Cardiff and will fancy their chances of beating Edinburgh, also on Friday night.
If the Stormers beat Cardiff, they set themselves up for a potential home semi-final.
“I think last week we lost our chance to finish top,” said Dobson of the 38-38 draw in Belfast, a game they Stormers had plenty of chances of winning. “Ulster targeted our game because they wanted to rest players (this week) for the Challenge Cup final (against Montpellier).
“I would imagine they will put a lot of academy guys into the team this week. It would be a pleasant surprise if Ulster win but we won’t be watching. Our focus is just to get the win in Cardiff.”
Dobson warned that his team will have to be at their best to crack a Cardiff side that have lost just once this season at the Cardiff Arms Park, to the Scarlets way back in December last year.
“They’ve got a really well-organised defence and a very good kicking game,” he said. “We have never beaten them away.”
“What cost us in Cardiff two years ago was the contestable kicking battle. They know how to play at the Arms Park. We’ll have to be much better in the air contesting.”
The Stormers were caught out in the aerial battle by Ulster last week. It was a curious performance by the Cape side in that their normally dominant scrum did not fire.
The man who knows all about it, prop Neethling Fouche, says they are determined to get back on the horse.
“We had some frustrated forwards after last week,” said Fouche, who replaces injured Deon Fourie as captain. “It’s probably the first time it’s happened to us that we haven’t had dominance on our own scrum ball.
“We’ve worked on it this week and put the necessary things in place around our mauls and different challenges that might come.”
Dobson pointed out an unusual anomaly from that match.
“We did not have a single scum put-in. Normally, we get three or four scrum penalties per game, plus one or two more penalties out wide with our maul,” Dobson said.
“That’s massive points, territory, and field position that probably weren’t there last week. The set piece is vital to our game model as a platform to launch attacks.”
Stormers — 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Imad Khan, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adré Smith, 3 Neethling Fouché (captain), 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu.