Stormers to sort out lineout woes against Leinster, says Hlungwani

Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani is confident that the team will be over their lineout woes when they front up against Irish giants Leinster in the United Rugby Championship (URC) in Dublin on Saturday.

The Stormers had a bad day at the office over the weekend in their Champions Cup loss against Racing 92, where they were absolutely dominated at the lineout, and that was one of the big factors in them going down in what was a close game.

Hlungwani, who is the team’s lineout guru, admits they were caught out by an impressive showing by the French side’s lifters and jumpers, but he believed that they have learnt valuable lessons that they will take into the Leinster clash.

“We’re the first to admit that we were not good enough in the lineouts. Racing had done their prep really well and gave us a few pictures which we hadn’t seen (before) and we didn’t adapt as well as we meant to,” explained Hlungwani.

“They were really good. They had a very good drill, they timed it well. I thought our guys, in terms of the standards that we really want to chase, we were quite decent. But we played against a really good contesting team. They had a better duel than us on the day.

“But we’ve moved on from it, learnt from it, and don’t want to make the same mistakes again. We definitely need to be better in that area.”

Star returns

The Stormers rested a number of star players over the past weekend with an eye on picking up what would be a top win over Leinster on their home ground.

Manie Libbok, Deon Fourie, Warrick Gelant, BJ Dixon, Leolin Zas and Seabelo Senatla are all expected to return to the match 23, while they wait on news on whether Evan Roos, Joseph Dweba and Suleiman Hartzenberg, who went off injured over the weekend, will be fit to play.

Leinster will field a largely second string team, with most of their Irish stars off to Portugal for a training camp ahead of the Six Nations, but even their reserve team is considered one of the best sides in the URC.

“We’re playing a very good team that is unbeaten this season. They’ve got a few boys coming back from injury, and they’ll still have quite a bit of internationals,” said Hlungwani. 

“I think the French prop hasn’t gone to France and one or two (Irish) internationals have stayed behind before they join the squad on Monday in Portugal. So we’re expecting to play a very strong team.

“It would mean a lot for us to beat them but we understand we’re playing a very good team that’s unbeaten this year and that’s been very dominant, especially playing at the Aviva.

“But we’re coming into this game giving us the best opportunity to get what we want, which is a win. We’re going to give it our all and try as hard as we can.”