They have everything to play for in their final tour match of the United Rugby Championship (URC) opening rounds, so the Stormers will throw the kitchen sink at Edinburgh on Saturday, looking for a second win.
After sealing a 36-5 victory over Zebre Parma in Italy this past weekend, securing a last-gasp bonus point try for a much-needed five points, the Cape side will look to end their European tour with a consecutive victory to build some momentum ahead of their home games in the competition.
“We used our Free Hit last week (in the loss against the Ospreys) and our goal for the tour was to get two wins,” Director of Rugby John Dobson said after the match.
“Now it’s everything to play for, for us.”
“Now it’s everything to play for, for us. Edinburgh could be a very different prospect up at the Hive Stadium. It’s going to be very difficult, but we’ve got confidence from this win. We want to get two wins. Had we gone there without this win, we would have lacked confidence and (failed) our tour objective.”
The win against the Italian side was their first of the season after the Welsh loss in the second round, and it brings some needed confidence to the side without key Springbok players.
Dobson added that they had to break down Zebre’s physical players and that was always going to be a tough task, especially with the home side being on a high after beating Munster. The Stormers, though, turned the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi into their playground as their forwards dominated the set pieces, allowing their adventurous backline to score the four tries via the speedy wingers.
“There were one or two forced passes when we realised a third and fourth try was on the table and decided to push for it.”
“With 15 minutes to go, we were where we wanted to be, it was like building an innings,” Dobson said about how they stuck to their gameplan.
“There were one or two forced passes when we realised a third and fourth try was on the table and decided to push for it. But we really wanted to bank a win. In terms of what we wanted, this was exactly the performance. We knew we had to put them under the pump. It took a long time to break down their defensive wall.
“We must give credit to Zebre, they are a very different team and you don’t beat Munster like that. Their defence and physicality are something you may not sense on TV, but it was like a wall in front of us. It was always going to be a scoreboard-pressure building of the innings.”
A full house in Parma. #ZEBvSTO #iamastormer #dhldelivers @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/JlxuLFzud2
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) October 5, 2024
That innings was built thanks to the scrum prowess of props Sti Sithole and Neethling Fouche. Sithole was penalised in one of the very first scrums but quickly got the better of his opponent with Fouche doing the same on the tighthead side.
Once they started walking with the Zebre front row, the penalties came and it allowed flyhalf Jurie Matthee to take shots at goal or put the ball out in the corner - although he missed two line kicks.
His goal-kicking accounted for the initial scoreboard pressure, he secured 14 points off the kicking tee, and once the first try was scored right before halftime via a brilliant lineout move, the cracks in the Zebre defence started to show and the Stormers took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second forty to seal it emphatically.