URC preview: Stormers fired up for Ulster match with ‘exciting’ team

The Stormers are fired up for their United Rugby Championship (URC) match against Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on Friday night (kick-off 9:35pm), despite having named an understrength team.

Coach John Dobson said that there was a fine line in selecting their side to face the hosts in Ireland, but admitted that he believed the team named was good enough to win, despite going into the game as underdogs.

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 “Player welfare was a factor (in the naming of the team). I can assure you when we sat down and chose a team we had to balance it out so that we could leave some guys out to be ready for the Sharks next week,” explained Dobson.

“But we still wanted to put out a team that could compete and beat Ulster and I think that’s the team we named. It’s going to be a different sort of game.

“This is not a game in 28 degrees at the Cape Town Stadium. We are not here to delight the Belfast crowd. I think what would make Cape Town proud is how we fight, and this is really a team of guys who fight.”

Missing stars

The Stormers are missing Springbok stars Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse and Frans Malherbe for the game, with them having started a month-long mandated holiday, while a few other players have been rested, and they have a number of injured players out.

They will be up against a full strength Ulster who will be eager to pick up a good home win ahead of a number of their international players joining up with Ireland for the Six Nations competition.

Although it is a weakened team the Stormers have still been able to name Springboks Evan Roos and Marvin Orie, who will captain the side, in their starting line-up, along with SA A players Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Suleiman Hartzenberg.

Bok scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies is on the bench, along with SA A prop Sazi Sandi, while former Boks Scarra Ntubeni and Juan de Jongh also bring a lot of experience to the replacements, making it a formidable team in the end.

“We are super excited for this game. At the start of the season we thought playing Ulster away, after a lot of needle in the two games last year, and being at one of the hardest places to play away in Europe, we thought this would be a game to send a so called B team,” said Dobson.

“But that’s not how it’s turned out. We have come here to win the game. It’s definitely not a B team and I think that no matter the result, the Stormers are the Stormers, no matter who is wearing the jersey.

“So it’s a really exciting team. If I look at that loose trio and the halfbacks, the midfield of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Ruhan Nel, it’s really exciting and I can’t wait to see them in action to be honest.”