Ross Roche

By Ross Roche

Senior sports writer


Stormers fired up for most important game of season

“We have to win, no matter what happens with other results. We have to put everything into this game."


The Stormers are absolutely fired up and ready for their most important game of the season so far as they take on Scarlets in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash in Llanelli on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 6.10pm).

It is the final match of the pool stage for the Stormers and one they have to win if they want to host a quarterfinal in Cape Town.

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“We have to win, no matter what happens with other results. We have to put everything into this game. We have to win it to secure a home quarterfinal and we have to win it with five points if we want to stand a chance of a home semi,” explained Stormers coach John Dobson.

“From our side we are also extremely proud of the record we have. We have lost the least games of anyone in the competition in our first year, which is quite a nice stat and it’s up to us to keep that record intact.”

Massive match

It is a massive match for Scarlets as well, as they are chasing qualification for next season’s European Rugby Champions Cup, and need to win to have a chance of qualifying ahead of Ospreys, who are currently above them in the race for pool honours.

Both teams thus have plenty on the line and will be going all out to claim what would be an important win in both of their seasons.

“They (Scarlets) might not have nothing to lose. What happens tonight between the Ospreys and the Bulls, if Ospreys don’t get the result or the five points that they want then everything is on the line for the Scarlets,” said Dobson.

“They are playing for their Heineken Cup qualification which will make them dangerous. Even if that wasn’t the case, and they had nothing to lose, they are one of the competition’s top try scorers having scored 63 tries.

“They’re a team that likes to move the ball around and I expect if they had nothing to lose they would be even more dangerous in how risk free they might be. So I think either way they’re going to be a pretty dangerous opponent.”

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