The Stormers face a tricky opening two games of the URC season, starting with Connacht in Galway on Friday night.
Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson says his team is in for a tough start to the new URC season, but that they hope to come away from their UK tour with two wins. Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The Stormers will have their work cut out for them when they open their United Rugby Championship (URC) campaign against Irish side Connacht in Galway on Friday night (kick-off 8:45pm).
It will be the first of two games on the road to get the Stormers‘ 2026/27 campaign up and running, and they will have to be in top form if they want to walk away from the Sportsground with any points.
Over the first four URC seasons the Stormers were largely a poor touring side and struggled on the road, but last season they turned things around with some impressive away wins, and they will be hoping to back that up over the new campaign.
Director of Rugby John Dobson said they had mixed feelings around that, acknowledging that they remembered what it was like to pick up some big away wins last season, but admitted that they had to start from zero again.
Tough start
“I think this is as tough a start as you can get. Connacht away is always tough. In the week I said to the team, of the sort of European cathedrals that we hadn’t won at [before], we beat Munster at Thomond Park and Benetton in Treviso last year. We also got a win over Bayonne in France,” said Dobson on Thursday.
“So that does give us some confidence. It does feel a bit like its history. Like it’s old news and we have to start again. It does very much feel like that, but I suppose we do have some muscle memory that we do know how to do it (win away overseas).
“If we can get one or two wins on the road here without our Springboks, and with the weird pre-season we have had (due to playing the All Blacks in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry in mid August) that would be great.
“We can’t leave here (the UK) with nought from two. If we can get a win over Connacht and then head to Edinburgh (next week) chasing two from two, that is where we want to be.”
Last season the Stormers enjoyed a superb start to their URC campaign, winning their first eight straight games, before stumbling over the next 10 as they picked up four wins, a draw and five losses to eventually finish third on the log.
Costly finish
That cost them in the end as they suffered a loss to Leinster in Ireland in the semifinals, when they would have had a better chance to win at home, and having started previous URC campaigns poorly and had to play catch up rugby, Dobson said they did not want to do that again.
“We know what it’s like to play catch-up rugby, climbing up the log over the season (in previous URC seasons), and we saw the joy of not having to do that last season.
“It’s nice not having a knife to your throat (in terms of having to constantly play your best players), as you can rotate the team, you can make some tweaks to the game plan, you give more guys opportunities because you don’t have your back to the wall. So that’s why a good start is so important to us.”
The Stormers named a strong side for the clash, but without their players on Springbok duty, as well as two Boks, Ntuthuko Mchunu and Ben-Jason Dixon, who they had hoped would be available, but may only turn out for them against Edinburgh.
“Ntuks (Mchunu) we thought we would get in his three weeks (Springbok) resting protocols. He has also just had a baby and has been away a lot (with the Boks in July), so he needed to spend some time at home with the child. He joins us (in Ireland) this weekend,” explained Dobson.
“BJ is still battling with some delayed concussion symptoms from the Argentina Test (with the Boks) in Buenos Aires, so that’s a bit of a blow for us because we hoped to have him ready (for this game). But all things being equal both of those guys are ready for next week.”
