URC semi-final preview: ‘Stormers have a responsibility to the fans’

The Stormers are geared up and ready for the attacking threat of Connacht when the two sides clash in their United Rugby Championship (URC) semi-final at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 4pm).

The home side will be hot favourites to progress to a second consecutive URC final, but come up against the tournament dark horses who pulled off a major upset by beating Ulster in the quarterfinals last weekend.

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Stormers coach John Dobson admitted that they have been watching Connacht improve over the past two seasons and know what kind of threat they will be.

‘Attacking brand of rugby’

“We are quite impressed with their last two seasons. They play a really good attacking brand of rugby, and I have a lot of respect for them doing it in those conditions they play in most weeks at home,” said Dobson.

“But they have seemed to get a little more pragmatic lately. A bit tighter, their attack is not quite as wide. I know they think they can get around us. Every team that plays against our sort of rush (defence) thinks there’s space around us. That is something we look forward to.”

The Stormers will be looking forward to playing in front of a massive home crowd once again after they initially had expected to travel to Belfast for their semi.

Over 44,000 fans turned up for their quarterfinal win over the Bulls and they are hoping to see an even bigger crowd cheer them on against Connacht.

“We got a ‘get out of jail’ card last week with that result (Connacht beating Ulster),” explained Dobson.

“In these very tough economic times and the area where we are, most of our fans are not very affluent, so the people coming out in their numbers, the over 44,000 of last week and hopefully over 40,000 this week, we have to fight and take that responsibility.

 “We feel the weight of that. People choosing us, it means the world to the team. Even if we are not fighting for a home final, that’s out of our control, but we have to put in a performance.”

Breakdown battle

The Stormers have also been working hard in the week on preparing for what should be a tough breakdown battle, after Connacht emphatically beat Ulster at the breakdown.

Losing star loose forward Deon Fourie will also be a big blow to the Stormers in that aspect, but they had been training in the week without him in anticipation of him not being passed fit for the match.

“We have to clear up a couple of things around the breakdown because if we look at the Ulster picture clearly, we saw that if you can’t protect your ball and get the cleaners in, you can’t keep the ball,” explained Dobson.