Stormers feel they’ve turned season around, but need to beat Scarlets

The full focus of the Stormers is on their United Rugby Championship (URC) match-up against Welsh outfit Scarlets in Llanelli on Saturday afternoon, before they look ahead to a tough encounter against Ulster in Ireland the following weekend.

The Stormers are in a huge battle for a place in the URC top eight, to secure a spot in the playoffs come the end of the season, and face a defining two games on their final tour of the campaign, before a four game home run to end the competition’s pool phase.

They are currently 12^th on the log, equal on points with Scarlets who sit two spots above them, one point below the Lions in eighth place, and just one point ahead of Ulster who are 14^th.

It is thus incredibly tight and any losses against their two top eight rivals over the next two weekends could be a hammer blow to their chances of making the knockouts.

Despite their poor form this season, Ulster at home will be a most concerning game for the Stormers, who are notoriously bad travellers, but they will also be well aware that Scarlets could be a banana peel game.

Yet to lose

They have yet to lose to Scarlets in the URC, thrashing them at home over the past two seasons, 36-19 in the 2023-24 campaign and 52-7 during the 2022-23 season, but their first meeting against them in the first season of the competition, was a massively tight contest that ended up with a tight win in Llanelli, that arguably set the Stormers on their way to the title.

It was the final pool match of the season and the Stormers needed a win to win the South African shield and secure their place in the top four on the log to ensure them a home playoff.

With the clock in the red and the score level at 21-all, Ruhan Nel scored the decisive try that gave the Stormers a bonus point win that allowed them to finish second on the log, and in the end host all three playoffs on their way to the lifting the inaugural trophy.

This Saturday’s game has just as important a feel about it as their previous visit to Llanelli and the Stormers will have to be at their best to get a result.

“We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves, what is most important is the game on Saturday and we can’t look beyond that,” explained Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman.

“Last year we were in a very similar situation. We had to beat the Dragons away and Connacht away to make the top eight, and we won both games. This is a similar situation and a place we have been in before.”

Turned the corner

Despite their struggles this season Snyman believes the Stormers managed to turn a corner recently, in a tight loss to the Bulls in Cape Town, going down 33-32, although they could have won if a conversion hadn’t been missed with a minute left on the clock.

They followed up that showing with a poor 30-23 loss against the Lions at Ellis Park, but then stunned the Bulls 19-16 at Loftus, and will take that momentum into the Scarlets game.

“We did feel that even though we lost the game, we felt the Cape Town game against the Bulls was the turnaround for us,” said Snyman.

“You can’t always put a finger on it exactly when it comes to why you don’t get over the line as winners. If you could do that, you’d win every game. There is always work in progress. And we are the type of team that likes to get into our rhythm.

“All those games were really close, and we had great moments. The last pass kept denying us for a while and for a while we couldn’t put it together like we wanted to but since the Cape Town game against the Bulls we feel like we are coming right.”