Stormers ready to end losing run against bogey team Munster — Dayimani

The Stormers are fired up and ready for the biggest challenge of the United Rugby Championship (URC) so far, when they face Munster in the Grand Final at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday evening.

Munster are the only team that the Stormers have yet to beat over two seasons of the URC, with them losing 34-18 in Ireland during their first campaign, while they went down 26-24 in Cape Town last month, ending a 16 month unbeaten home run in the competition in the process.

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Munster have thus been the Stormers’ bogey team so far, and star loose forward Hacjivah Dayimani knows exactly how much of a challenge they will be and how much they have to improve to beat them in the final.

“The thing about Munster is they have beaten us twice now, overseas last season and then last month here (in Cape Town). You can see by the much smaller margin of defeat in the most recent loss that we are in a completely different space to when we first lost to them,” explained Dayimani.

“It shows that we have been continuously improving. People will think that because we are URC champions we are perfect, but we are not. We are a team that is always learning and trying to improve and we tend to fix our mistakes quicker than other teams.

“With Munster coming this weekend that’s what we are striving to do … to be better than the last time we played them. So don’t judge us on our last game, but rather judge us based on (how we play on) the day. That is why we have to bring our A game.”

Sold out final

With the final sold out and a record crowd of around 55,000 people set to pack out the Cape Town Stadium, the Stormers will have been happy with the extra week of preparation that was afforded to them thanks to the Champions Cup final being battled out last weekend.

“The build-up has been crazy. You saw with the ticket sales how many people want to see us play, and that just shows you how important rugby is in Cape Town and why we do what we do,” said Dayimani.

“Things have been great so far. But it is one thing for us to get caught up in the whole hype of the build-up and (enormity) of the occasion, and it’s another for us to try and ignore it and just focus on the main job.

“We had to snap out of it sooner rather than later and focus on the job at hand. So last week was a good week for us to calm down. We had a couple of days to get our mindset right and we are now excited and ready for the final.”