Cape Town - After the success and forward strides they made this season, with plenty of injury and national duty disruptions to their squad, it will be a hollow achievement for the Stormers if they don’t win the United Rugby Championship (URC) final against Munster this evening.
The two teams square up in front of a capacity 55 000 crowd at DHL Stadium (kick-off 6.30pm) in a battle for URC glory.
Some nerves are normal before such a match, but the coaches and captains did well keeping them under wraps.
“I feel like we had a good, normal week,” Stormers coach John Dobson said at his team announcement yesterday. “I haven’t felt like there have been too many distractions.
“Our plans for the game are good. The tough one is that we have this mission, which I have talked enough about in the last while, or this vision of what we want to do with rugby in Cape Town.”
Dobson said they achieved that, to a large degree, and they have achieved what they set out to at the start of the season. When they wrote down their list of goals, it wasn’t to retain the URC trophy. But their achievements, like building capacity in their squad, and how they’ve successfully done that, will not replace a trophy that, at the end of the day, is a measure of the success of a team’s season.
“The truth is we are desperate to win tomorrow. It would really feel like a hollow achievement of goals if we don’t. The cold logic has given way to quite high levels of emotion, anxiety and enthusiasm,” Dobson said, laughing nervously.
“The big thing is we haven’t beaten Munster in the URC. They are the only team we haven’t beaten. That causes a bit more anxiety.”
At one stage this year the Stormers forged on without their regular Springboks. Injuries threatened to derail their campaign. They fought their way through three competitions at one stage where club players had to help the Currie Cup team.
But through all of this, the team kept Cape Town smiling with their style of rugby.
Being a consecutive home final, and the fact that they lost to Munster in Cape Town recently, means there will be more pressure on the defending champions come kick-off.
“We were genuinely keen to go and play Leinster, it would’ve been part of the growth of our group … But now there is a massive fear of letting the people of Cape Town down,” Dobson said.
“The whole city has just embraced rugby, which I’ve never seen.”
Springboks Deon Fourie and Marvin Orie return to the starting line-up for the clash, with just two forwards in hooker Joseph Dweba and lock Ruben van Heerden who didn’t feature in the starting pack in last year’s final.
Fullback Clayton Blommetjies replaces the injured utility back Sacha Feinberg-mngomezulu on the bench, with Dobson opting for a six-two split in the reserves to accommodate the players that helped the Stormers reach the final.
For Steven Kitshoff, the Stormers captain, the final will be his last goodbye before he moves abroad to continue his career.
STORMERS: 15. Damian Willemse, 14. Angelo Davids, 13. Ruhan Nel, 12. Dan du Plessis, 11. Leolin Zas, 10. Manie Libbok, 9. Herschel Jantjies, 8. Evan Roos, 7. Hacjivah Dayimani, 6. Deon Fourie, 5. Marvin Orie, 4. Ruben van Heerden, 3. Frans Malherbe, 2. Joseph Dweba, 1. Steven Kitshoff (captain)
Replacements: 16. JJ Kotze, 17. Ali Vermaak, 18. Neethling Fouche, 19. Ben-jason Dixon, 20. Willie Engelbrecht, 21. Marcel Theunissen, 22. Paul de Wet, 23. Clayton Blommetjies.
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Malakai Fekitoa, Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Conor Murray; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’mahony (C), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Josh Wycherley, Roman Salanoa, RG Snyman, Alex Kendellen, Craig Casey, Ben Healy, Keith Earls.