Stormers want good start to URC tour, but Glasgow match is not ‘make or break’

The Stormers were the last South African side to hit the road earlier this week as they departed on their first tour of the current United Rugby Championship (URC) season.

The Sharks are already two games into their tour, while the Bulls and Lions played their first games of their respective tours over the past weekend.

The Stormers were, however, afforded the chance to start their season with two games in SA, which they did in style as they picked up a 35-33 win over the Lions at Ellis Park and then a thumping 52-7 win over Scarlets in Stellenbosch to take a perfect 10 points to top the URC log after two rounds.

They have thus built up the perfect momentum to head into their four game tour of the UK and Europe over the coming four weeks.

The Stormers will be targeting a good start to their tour but find themselves up against a tough Glasgow Warriors side in Scotland first up on Friday night (kick-off 9:35pm).

Start of tour

The Stormers haven’t toured very well in their past two seasons in the URC, so they will want to open with a win, but it will likely depend on which Glasgow side rocks up on the day.

The hosts have had a mixed start to the season, clinching a superb 43-25 win over Leinster at home in their opening game, but they slipped up away against Connacht in their second match going down 34-26.

Although the Stormers know another win will give them the perfect momentum for the rest of their tour, assistant coach Norman Laker doesn’t believe it’s a make or break match.

“I wouldn’t say this is a make or break match for us. It is the start of a four week tour, so we want to get off to a positive start on Friday night,” said Laker.

“But we then head into the next three weeks, where we will be playing Benetton, Munster and Cardiff. So we will try and make the best that we can of this tour.

‘Getting better’

Laker did admit that the team would like to continue getting better in each match that they play, which is what they will be targeting in their clash against Glasgow.

“Any game you play, even if it’s a pool game, it’s important to win. So for us it was really good to start off with two wins (before the tour). Also it was the way we won the games that was important. You don’t want to win a game and not be happy with the performance,” said Laker.

“There were some things (in the first game) at Ellis Park that we weren’t happy with and some things that we were really happy with. Similar to (this past) Saturday (against Scarlets). So there are still a few things to work on and make sure that as the season progresses we are getting better.”