Stormers will feel pressure
The Stormers are for the first time under a bit of pressure heading into the back end of the United Rugby Championship (URC) with them sitting just outside the knockout positions with seven rounds remaining.
With them currently ninth on the log the Stormers should be able to secure a place in the URC top eight without too much trouble, but their chances of finishing in the top four and securing at least one home playoff could hinge on the results of their next two games.
Crucially they will be at home at the Cape Town Stadium for both matches, with them taking on Scottish giants Edinburgh and Irish giants Ulster.
Edinburgh in fourth and Ulster in fifth are both on 34 points, four ahead of the Cape side, and if one or both of them manages to pick up a win in Cape Town, John Dobson’s (above) Stormers will slip further away from the top four.
The Stormers are however unbeaten at home this season and should be confident, having picked up thumping wins over Scarlets (52-7) and Zebre (31-7), while they edged thrilling local derbies against the Bulls (26-20) and the Sharks (16-15).
But this will be a different test in coming up against teams that can match them with personnel and who will also be desperate to keep their top four hopes alive.
The Stormers are also not unbeatable at home, as Munster showed last season when they beat them in Cape Town towards the end of the pool phase and then beat them again in the final, and Edinburgh and Ulster would do well to take note of those performances.
With the URC having just entered a three week break between games, to allow the Six Nations to conclude over the next two weekends, it may have come at the perfect time for the Stormers who will be smarting from their 40-22 loss against the Bulls at Loftus over the past weekend.
They will now have ample time to analyse that result, get over it and prepare for their next major challenge, while they will also be welcoming a few players back from injury and should be a stronger team by the Edinburgh game on 23 March.