Stormers enter playoffs early as Leinster loom in URC

The Stormers are taking every game as a knockout from now on as they prepare to take on Irish giants Leinster in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.

The Cape side’s shock loss at home against Ospreys over the past weekend has seen them slip into a proper scrap for places in the competition’s top eight to reach the playoffs, with just three points separating fifth on the log from 11^th.

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With the Stormers in sixth place, six points off the Bulls in fourth and just one point ahead of the 11^th placed Lions, they know another loss will deal a fatal blow to their slim hopes of finishing in the top four, and it could see them out of the top eight after the weekend.

“We are in a situation where we are effectively going into the playoff phase early but in the past two years we haven’t changed anything once we reached the final or the playoffs, so we won’t change anything now,” explained Stormers assistant coach Norman Laker.

“For the next couple of weeks the focus will just be on us communicating better and being more decisive (in our decision making).”

Improvements needed

Where the Stormers need to improve the most is their penchant to overplay, which sees them throw the 50-50 ball when under pressure, or go for a cross kick when it isn’t on.

However Laker says that they will still be playing as they have been this season, they just need to execute better, which they haven’t done well enough recently.

“We have spoken about the offloads and we know it cost us against the Ospreys but that is what we are. If we take that aspect of our game away then we become the same as any other team,” said Laker.

“The option taking when it comes to offloads hasn’t been great but we are not going to ask the team to go into their shells.

“In the past games the decisions went in our favour and we were standing under the poles clapping hands and smiling at each other. This time it wasn’t the same.

“We went for it, but instead of celebrating a try and a 7-0 lead we ended up conceding the try ourselves and suddenly found ourselves down 5-0. There were a few lessons we learned, which was good. Not the defeat, but the lessons.”