‘Energised’ Stormers ready to make up for Lions loss as URC returns

The Stormers have enjoyed a productive month off and are fired up and ready to resume their United Rugby Championship campaign with a North/South derby clash against the Bulls at Loftus this weekend.

The Cape Town side have welcomed back a host of players, with some returning from injury while almost all of their Springboks are up for selection, having not been available during previous games in the competition.

“We have a full squad back and the guys are excited. We want to rectify what happened in our last game, the energy is good and we hope to have learnt from our mistakes so we are looking forward to this weekend’s game,” admitted forwards coach Rito Hlungwani.

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The Stormers’ last match was a heavy 37-19 defeat against the Lions at the Cape Town Stadium in early December, and set them back after they had picked up their first win in the competition in the previous game, the last on tour in Europe against the Dragons.

The team have thus had over a month off to analyse and prepare for the coming four rounds of derby fixtures that will see some SA teams separating themselves from the others.

“The break is always a bit of a challenge but it does give you time to reflect and see where you went wrong and the things that you need to improve,” said Hlungwani.

“So we are just happy to be back training again, we probably had two reviews of the Lions game before we left (on break) and when we started again, so it is still nice and fresh.

“We know what we did wrong, the things that we want to improve. So we are ready for the upcoming game.”

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It will be an interesting matchup between the Stormers and Bulls with both sides having struggled in the URC so far, managing just one win in five games each, although the Stormers also have one draw to their name.

The Bulls have surprisingly been the worst performing local team, after having dominated the SA rugby scene over the past two years during Covid times, winning two Currie Cups and the Rainbow Cup SA.

However, they have struggled to come to grips with the challenge of the URC so far and thus sit second bottom of the log and are the lowest SA team, although the Stormers sit just one spot above them.

Both sides will be desperate for a morale boosting win to try and kickstart a revival in the competition and see them try make their way back up the log.