Stormers hunting vital URC win over Glasgow Warriors

The Stormers are hunting what could be a vital United Rugby Championship (URC) win over defending champs Glasgow Warriors when the two sides collide at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Saturday afternoon (Kick-off 1:45pm).

It has not been the best of starts to the competition for the Cape Town side, with them picking up just one win from three on their overseas tour, but a strong bonus point home win over Munster in their last game lifted them to 12^th on the URC log.

With them currently in the bottom half of the log, a loss against Glasgow would leave them seriously behind the eight ball going into the international break, and would put them under massive pressure when they return to action at the end of November.

They will thus be targeting another good win to take into the month long break, and Director of Rugby John Dobson is confident that they will be able to do that against a tough opponent.

“We saw last week what a difference it makes playing in our conditions in front of our supporters, but we need to back that up on Saturday again,” explained Dobson.

“Glasgow are the defending champions, so we will have to raise our game further if we are to get the win we need.”

Star players

The Stormers will be welcoming back some star players for the match, including a couple of Boks in prop Frans Malherbe and flyhalf Manie Libbok.

Utility back Damian Willemse put in a stunning man-of-the-match performance against Munster from pivot, but shifts to inside centre for this game, which sees a bit of a shake up in the backline, while hooker Andre-Hugo Venter comes in to start in his 50^th appearance for the team.

“We are thrilled for Andre-Hugo to reach this milestone at such a young age and we look forward to even bigger things from him in the years to come,” said Dobson.

“It is fantastic to have the likes of Frans and Manie back in the mix and we expect them to make a real impact on Saturday.”

It is also an important game for the current URC champs, after they went down to the Sharks last weekend, and although they are comfortably sitting third on the log, they will not want another slip up to see them drop down.

They are well aware of what is needed to win in South Africa as well, having beaten the Bulls on the highveld to triumph in last season’s final, and they will be aiming to produce another upset on Saturday, and Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani admitted the hosts have to be ready for that.

“We know that Glasgow is a good side and really well-coached. It’s definitely going to be a massive challenge for us. I’m sure they have certain goals that they want to achieve on this tour and clearly they want to make sure that they get some points,” said Hlungwani.