Stormers fully prepared for Ulster challenge despite late departure

The Stormers are fired up and fully prepared for their tricky away clash against Irish giants Ulster at the Affidea Stadium on Friday night, with them arriving in Belfast on Tuesday afternoon.

They will thus have precious little time to get themselves ready for a huge clash against the desperate hosts, as Ulster sit in eighth place on the URC log and know a loss could see them drop out of the playoff places by the end of the weekend.

It is also a pressure game for the table topping Stormers as second placed Glasgow Warriors sit just one point behind them, and a loss could see them drop down to third and leave them with it all to do in the final round to try re-secure first place.

Both teams will thus be going all out for a win that would leave both in a solid position heading into the final round of pool fixtures next weekend.

Despite having the past weekend off, which gave them a chance to leave SA earlier, Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani explained that allowing their players another night at home and extra preparation time played a part in their decision to leave later.

Well prepared

“It is always nice to get a week off (playing). We have had a nice full week of preparation and we are well prepared and ready to go against Ulster,” said Hlungwani on Monday.

“Because we are coming off an off week, we managed to sort out all of our preparation last week. We trained this morning as well, so we are pretty much ready to go as soon as we get there.”

One of the challenges for the Stormers will be playing on a 4G pitch, but having experienced it enough over the past four years, and having won a game on it, it isn’t as big a threat as it used to be in the early years.

“It’s a really fast pitch. The ball bobbles a lot and keeps rolling, so you can’t rely on it going dead. The momentum you get from carries is different, so your body height has to be right. The same applies to tackling, those small details become very important,” explained Hlungwani.

“I think the last win we had on 4G was Connacht away. We’ve won in Edinburgh, we’ve come close at Ulster, we’ve come close at Cardiff, but we see those experiences as an opportunity to learn.

“We feel we’ve got a strong understanding of how to prepare and play on that surface. We have had wins, probably the biggest one at Stade Francais.”

The Stormers close out their pool campaign with another tricky encounter, against currently sixth placed Cardiff in Wales next Friday, making a win over Ulster even more important.