Stormers excited to get new season going in URC opener

The inaugural United Rugby Championship champions, the Stormers, are eager to get the defence of their title up and running at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Saturday.

The hosts open their campaign with two home games, first against Connacht before taking on Edinburgh, in what should be a blockbuster start to the season.

Connacht kicked off their season with a tough 36-10 loss against Ulster last weekend and it doesn’t get any easier for them as they now have to try respond against the champions in their own backyard.

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“We are excited and looking forward to getting our season up and running. Our main focus is just to improve on the good things that we did last season and the things that we didn’t do as well, so we want to make small improvements in all facets of our game,” explained Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani.

“It makes quite a big difference playing our first few games at home. We won’t be with our Springboks. So it will be nice to blood the youngsters at home.

“We also want to get the Cape Town Stormers faithful to come and watch the champions start the competition and after those two games it will be nice to go over and take on the European teams away.”

The Stormers insist they aren’t looking too far ahead and haven’t set themselves any goals in terms of retaining their title.

“Our mindset is to get better and we feel if we just focus on that we will get what we really want, so we are not going to chase the outcome now. We will chase improving on all facets of our game and if we get that right we will be comfortable with what we get at the end,” explained Hlungwani.

Packed season

It was a busy off season for the Stormers, who made a number of signings to bolster their squad ahead of a campaign which also includes the Champions Cup, played against the best teams from France and England.

“In terms of players we have exhausted the capacity that we have been given by SA Rugby, so we can’t go more than that. But we also have a lot of junior players coming through, so we are quite happy with the quality of our players and the number of players that we have,” said Hlungwani.

“We are looking forward to playing the English and French sides. It will be a totally different challenge and the bigger challenge will be to manage the players correctly between the two competitions.”

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Another thing the team will need to get used to is a very busy December, playing every single week over the Christmas period, which is something that SA teams have never done before.

“It’s something we have to adapt to quickly if we want to remain successful. From a coaching point of view we have to plan meticulously so that the players loads are well managed, that the right players are playing at the right time and we are not overplaying the players,” said Hlungwani.

“So we should be able to handle that December period well. It is exciting times with the new competition (Challenge Cup) that’s also coming into the ranks so we are looking forward to that.”