Stormers centre brushes off favourites tag
DHL Stormers centre Ruhan Nel has scoffed at suggestions from Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter that the South African team will start as outright favourites to win Saturday’s Heineken Champions Cup quarterfinal at Sandy Park.
Baxter said earlier in the week that he knew no-one would give his team a chance against the reigning Vodacom United Rugby Championship title holders, but it is a view that does not really hold up as while Exeter have struggled recently with their form, they remain a difficult team to beat at home and boast a good record at their home ground.
“Definitely, if you ask me personally, that is mind games,” Nel said.
“No coach will tell a team they are going to lose a quarterfinal at home.
“South African teams, with the coaches they have, love to play mind games — they do it all the time, and we are used to it when we play against each other in South Africa.
“To my mind, this is no different.”
Baxter argued his case on the basis of his team’s most recent result against Harlequins, who the Stormers beat in Cape Town last weekend to advance to the quarterfinals.
“They dealt with Harlequins pretty easily and Harlequins dealt with us pretty easily two weeks ago, so that’s it, it’s game over,” Baxter said.
It sounded like Baxter was being sarcastic, and he did follow up by saying the underdog tag was one that his team were happy to embrace.
“That is quite a nice place to start from for us,” he said.
If there was any seriousness in what Baxter had to say, his mind might have been changed by what the Stormers, like the other South African team in the Champions Cup quarterfinal round, the Cell C Sharks, have been through to get to their respective venues (the Sharks are set to play French giants Toulouse).
Stormers defence coach Norman Laker confirmed that the circuitous route his team took to get to Exeter was not in the initial planning.
“We wanted to leave on Monday evening, that was the plan, but I don’t think there were any flights,” Laker said.
“Then it came through that we were leaving in two groups on Tuesday.
“The flight I was going to be on had a technical error so we had to change airlines and fly via Dubai.
“It was a bit disruptive, but we are not going to worry about it and let it affect us.”
Where the Stormers’ situation appears to differ from that of the Sharks was that the Durbanites were always set to fly on Tuesday, and they had two training sessions before they flew out.
According to Laker, the Stormers were going to be able to squeeze just two training sessions in this week.
Far from being a problem, Nel reckoned the amount of time the Stormers players hadspent on the training field recently meant the shortened physical part of the buildup might be a blessing in disguise.
“We have played enough and we spent the extra time travelling working on Exeter and putting plans in place,” the former Blitzbok star said.
“There will be fewer practices this week than was intended, but it will help us be fresh and we feel sharp.
“I think less time on the field is a good thing for the team, so it is not something we should be concerned about and we certainly won’t be using it as an excuse.