Stormers chasing a precious point in URC against Cardiff

The Stormers are aiming to secure at least one point from their final United Rugby Championship (URC) pool match against Cardiff at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night (kick-off 7pm).

Director of Rugby John Dobson admitted that they were gunning for the win, but if they slipped up they had to make sure they secure a losing or try scoring bonus point, which would ensure that they couldn’t finish lower than seventh on the URC log.

Currently the Stormers are fifth on the log, and if they win against Cardiff as expected they will secure that position, which would see them face either Glasgow Warriors in Scotland or the Sharks in Durban in the quarterfinals.

With Glasgow up against Leinster in their final pool match, it is likely that they will lose and slip to fourth, below the Sharks who are expected to beat Scarlets and move up to third.

Playoff permutations

If that were to pan out it means the Stormers would face Glasgow if they finish fifth, the Sharks if they finish sixth and maybe even the Bulls if they drop to seventh, but they want to avoid at all costs dropping to eighth which would send them off to Dublin.

“We absolutely have to get a point out of the game. Obviously we want far more but we talked about it, and don’t want to run the risk of finishing eighth. It’s going to be a little bit like a knockout game, not that we designed it like that,” said Dobson during the team announcement on Thursday.

“We’re still going to go for the quickest way of making sure we’re not finishing eighth, and that’s getting the four tries, isn’t it? But we’re also not going to let a team beat us by more than seven, that’s for sure.”

The reason for Dobson’s hesitation in saying they will secure a win, is that the team has made 10 changes to the starting 15 from their thumping win over Dragons last weekend, and that could see them struggle to gel initially.

Returning stalwarts

Although star players like Evan Roos and Warrick Gelant have been rested, while Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu will play off the bench, they have had the luxury of bringing in players such as returning Springbok flyhalf Manie Libbok, Neethling Fouche, and Dan du Plessis amongst others.

“Losing momentum is a concern and there is a risk to doing what we are doing (against Cardiff) and I am a bit worried about that,” admitted Dobson.

“Also because the team is in such a good space. We have been really consistent over the last few games. But, for example, we do have to play Manie. We’d like to have kept Sacha’s innings going and keep that flow going, but the fact is that if Sacha gets injured ahead of the playoffs, then Manie would not have played at all.

“So Manie has to play, and to control his game time he has to start. It is not like looseforward, where you can cover for a guy if he is injured early in the game. If Sacha started and went down after five minutes, Manie is not ready to play 75 minutes.

“It does worry me a bit (looking ahead to the quarterfinal) as we are in such a nice space, but apart from needing to give players game time, there are also players we feel needed protecting.”