Stormers and Racing to rely on ‘inside men’ ahead of Champions Cup clash

Both the Stormers and Racing 92 have an inside man in their camp ahead of what is a must win Champions Cup encounter in Paris on Saturday night.

The Stormers are currently in the fourth and final qualification spot in their pool going into the last round of games, and have to beat bottom side Racing to stay ahead of them on the log and qualify for the last 16.

Despite their struggles this season the French side will be going all out for the win to keep their hopes of making the knockouts alive, while the Stormers will be desperate to continue their good recent run of form after a tough start to the season.

Bit of help

Both teams will this be looking for any bit of help to get them over the line, and they will likely turn to their players to give them that edge.

Loose forward Hacjivah Dayimani and outside back Warrick Gelant will be the two ‘inside men’ that both teams will be looking too for a bit of extra insight.

Dayimani was a fan favourite at the Stormers since joining them from the Lions back in 2021, but after growing frustrated at not getting a call up to the Springboks, left at the end of last season for Racing, so he knows the team and coach John Dobson intimately.

Gelant spent one ill-fated season at Racing, in 2022-23, and although he didn’t play under current coach Stuart Lancaster, he will still know a number of the players well from his time there.

“We know Hacjivah really well and he’ll also have some inside information from our point of view,” explained Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman at a press conference earlier in the week.

“It will be great to see him, he’s a great Stormer and a great man. You need to be aware when he has the ball and hopefully we can contain him. If he gets a bit of space, he’s dangerous, but luckily we’ve seen a lot of that in training. We know his habits so hopefully we can put him down.

“I actually said to the guys they must speak to Warrick. Obviously, he wasn’t there when Lancaster started coaching, so there will be changes in terms of the way they play and how he does things.

“But Warrick knows the players that played there. There will be a lot of individual chats with Warrick to tap into his knowledge on what they can bring and how they play.”

Morale boosting

The Stormers head into the match off a morale boosting 40-0 drubbing of English Premiership side Sale Sharks in Cape Town and they will be looking to build on that performance, especially with them converting most of their chances when getting into the opposition 22m.

“There were one or two games earlier in the season where we had those opportunities in the 22 and we didn’t convert, and we could feel (against Sale) we were building scoreboard pressure in the game,” explained Snyman.

“And once we got into those zones the forwards did a really good job to either create space or score themselves.”

“They’re (Racing) a big physical side so we need to make sure we front up there in those areas. Lancaster is a really good coach and will definitely have plans against us so we need to be sharp and adapt.

“They also have great individuals, plenty of French (international) players and a few Fijians, so there’s always threats around the park and we need to be sharp.”