The Stormers and All Blacks will kick off Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series in Cape Town on Friday night.
Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson says the team is ready for their historic match against the All Blacks in Cape Town on Friday night. Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The Stormers are well aware of the gravity and magnitude of their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) tour clash against the All Blacks at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night (kick-off 7:10pm), according to Director of Rugby John Dobson.
It is set to be a historic encounter, 50 years on from when Western Province beat the All Blacks in a tour game back in 1976, and the Stormers will be motivated to attempt the same feat.
Dobson admitted that he initially thought it didn’t come at the best time, almost two months out from the start of their next United Rugby Championship campaign, and smack bang in the middle of their off-season, but said he had changed his mind as the excitement for the occasion has grown.
“This is not just another game for us, when it first came out it was the wrong time and we felt it would stuff up our pre-season,” explained Dobson.
“But then it became clear to me that the players desperately want to play in this game, and as the game has approached the magnitude of it has just got bigger and bigger. So we divided the pre-season into portions.
“We’ve been back for three to four weeks, with the specific goal of preparing for the All Black game, and then the players will have a week off after this game before we resume the preparations for the URC season.
“We feel we have the responsibility to our history, to the memory of the famous win over the All Blacks in 1976, to give this game a full go and not hold back. We had two of the players from that 1976 team, Bossie Clarke and Peter Whipp, in to address the players, and it was quite inspirational.”
Tough task
The Stormers will have a tough task of trying to hit the ground running against the All Blacks, without having a warm-up match, which Dobson said was unfortunate but unavoidable due to the awkward schedule.
“It is going to be a huge challenge for us to be clinically accurate when we have had so much time off. Ideally we should have played a warmup game before this, but this is the situation we are in and the mental aspect will be a huge part of our challenge,” said Dobson.
“But we’ve worked hard and we’ve got a really clear plan. It may not be nominated for the Emmys for the most entertaining rugby, but it’s Friday night and this is going to be a Test match in our view.
“The anthem is going to be something. There’s going to be a haka. We’ve got one job, to get into that fight and win it.”
