Home games will give Stormers early edge — coach
Western Cape team kick off URC campaign against Connacht on Saturday
Playing their first two games at home will give the Stormers an early advantage in their quest to defend their United Rugby Championship title successfully, 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 quite a big difference playing our first few games at home.
“We won’t be with 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 away.”
“Our mindset is to get better 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.
“We will chase improving on all facets of our game and if we get that right we will be comfortable with what we get at the end.
“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 with the quality of our players and the number of players we have.
“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 in December is something we have to adapt to quickly if we want to remain successful.
“From a coaching point of view, we have to plan meticulously so that the players’ workloads are well managed and the right players are playing at the right time and we are not overplaying the players.
“So we should be able to handle that December period well.
“It is exciting times with the new competition Challenge Cup that’s also coming into the ranks so we are looking forward to that.”
Stormers head coach John Dobson said the signing of experienced Samoan international Alapati Leiua would bolster his 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,” he 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.