Stormers gunning for URC upset over Leinster in Dublin

The Stormers will be going all out to deal United Rugby Championship (URC) log leaders Leinster their first defeat of the season when the two sides collide in their clash at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night (kick-off 7pm).

The Irish giants will not be at full strength as a slew of their Irish internationals will be at a training camp in Portugal ahead of the Six Nations kicking off next month.

However they still boast an incredible lineup featuring Springbok double World Cup winning lock RG Snyman, All Blacks star Jordie Barrett, French prop Rabah Slimani, while Irish stars Dan Sheehan and James Louw have also stayed back for the match as they return from injury.

The rest of the team are all players just bubbling under the starting group, so it will be an extremely tough encounter for the Stormers, who have been a very poor traveling team in the competition so far.

However they showed how important this game was to them and how they were targeting a win by resting a number of star players in their Champions Cup loss to Racing 92 over the past weekend.

Manie Libbok, Deon Fourie, Warrick Gelant, BJ Dixon, Leolin Zas and Seabelo Senatla all sat out the game in France, so should be firing on all cylinders on Saturday, while Evan Roos and Joseph Dweba, who went off injured over the past weekend, were both passed fit.

Strong team

“We are playing a strong team. We understand that. But we are going into this game with the best opportunity to get what we want, which is a win,” said Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani.

“We are going to give it our all, we are going to try as hard as we can and hopefully get the result that we want.

“As much as we understand we are playing a tough team, we are not fearful of the battle that awaits us. We are going to give it our all to get what we really want out of this.”

Before the Racing loss, the Stormers had bounced back from a poor start to the season by going on a winning run, beating the Lions and Sharks in the URC and then thumping Sale Sharks in the Champions Cup.

Young loose forward Paul de Villiers believes the Racing result was just a blip and that they can get back to winning ways against Leinster and continue their march up the URC table.

“This weekend will be important. If we win this then we go back to South Africa where we play the Bulls, Lions and then a few other games. So it will be good if we can start that momentum again,” said De Villiers.

“It was probably just a slight hurdle (Racing result). So if we can keep on going like before we left SA after the Sale game, trying to get into that top eight as quickly as possible and building it up we can target that home URC playoff.”