Stormers look to Samoa for a lift from Leiua
Playing their first two games at home will give the Stormers an early advantage in their quest to defend their United Rugby Championship (UCR) title, assistant coach Rito Hlungwani says.
The Western Cape franchise kick off their campaign against Connacht in Stellenbosch on Saturday before another home game against Edinburgh the following weekend.
“We are excited and looking forward to getting our season up and running,” Hlungwani said. “Our main focus is just to improve on the good things we did last season and the things we didn’t do as well.
“We want to make small improvements in all facets of our game. It makes a big difference playing our first few games at home. We won’t have our Springboks, so it will be nice to blood the youngsters at home.
“We also want to get the Cape Town Stormers faithful to come and watch the champions start the competition, and after those two games, it will be nice to go over and take on the European teams,” he said.
“Our mindset is to improve and we feel if we just focus on that we will get what we want, so we are not going to chase the outcome now.
“In terms of players, we have exhausted the capacity that we have been given by SA Rugby, so we can’t go more than that.
“But we also have a lot of junior players coming through, so we are quite happy. We are looking forward to playing the English and French sides.
“It will be a different challenge and the bigger challenge will be to manage the players correctly between different competitions.
“Playing over the Christmas period is something we have to adapt to quickly if we want to remain successful.”
Stormers head coach John Dobson said the signing of experienced Samoan international centre Alapati Leiua will bolster the team.
“We have lost two experienced centres in Ruan Nel and Juan de Jongh to injury and while we have exciting talent in the squad, I felt it necessary to bring in an experienced campaigner with the qualities to make an impact on the field and mentor the younger talent,” Dobson said.
“We are very fortunate to have signed Leiua. He has played 279 professional matches since his debut for Wellington in New Zealand in 2009 and the last of his 31 Tests for Samoa was in the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
“Alapati has shown great loyalty to the teams he has represented, having played 101 matches for Wellington and the Hurricanes, 104 matches for Bristol Bears and 43 times for Wasps when he first moved from New Zealand to the English Premiership.
“He brings experience to our group and while our vision is to develop our youngsters and to give them as much opportunity as possible, there are times when circumstances make for a short-term decision.
“We believe his track record speaks for itself and wherever he has gone, he has made his presence felt on the field.”