A number of international players such as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse will be absent when the URC resumes this weekend.
Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman says the team are fully prepared to take on the might of in-form Irish giants Munster without their Springbok stars, when the teams collide in the United Rugby Championship (URC) at Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday.
It is a top of the table clash, with the Stormers currently ahead of the Irish side on the URC log on points difference, and both teams head into the game unbeaten in the competition, having picked up five wins a piece.
The Stormers will be fired up for the match having enjoyed their best ever start to a URC season, and produced a historic three-match winning away tour before the November international break.
Boks unavailable
However, any hope that they would receive Springbok reinforcements, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach, Ben-Jason Dixon, Zachary Porthen and Ntuthuko Mchunu currently with the national team, has disappeared.
It was confirmed by the Boks on Monday afternoon that none of the Stormers players had been released from the squad for the game against Wales, meaning the Cape side will have to make do without their best.
“At this stage, we haven’t received confirmation of which players will be available to join us. We have taken what we have here and prepared for Munster with those players. If anyone becomes available, we will deal with that. But at this stage, we haven’t received confirmation,” said Snyman earlier in the day.
“We knew that the Boks would be on that side and who was going to be involved. So we had the opportunity to have three really quality weeks of training with the squad here at home and it’s a good squad.
“It was nice to try out some new combinations, and also having the guys understand what we want to do and what we want to get right over the weekend.”
Winning start
After their fantastic winning start to the season, which included a thrashing of an admittedly weakened defending champion Leinster team at home, as well as good away wins over Scarlets, Zebre and Benetton, the Stormers now face their biggest challenge of the season so far.
Snyman said that the November break came at the perfect time for the Stormers and that they were confident of continuing their good momentum and picking up a fourth straight away win.
“The break was good to freshen up mentally, but it feels like we still have that momentum, energy and confidence. It probably will be a little different once we get there,” said Snyman.
“We are facing a good side and will go all guns blazing at each other. But there is still confidence in the squad in knowing what we must do.
“We don’t know if Munster will rest their Irish players, but we are preparing as if all of them will be playing. They are quality players and will strengthen their team.”
The Stormers leave SA for Ireland on Wednesday, and following Saturday’s match will fly on to France to take on Aviron Bayonnais in the opening round of the Champions Cup.
