Stormers ‘won’t live in the past’ as they aim to move off foot of URC table against ‘confident’ Munster
The Stormers form a huddle during a URC match.
The Stormers will have to show considerable improvement if they want to return to the victory trail in the United Rugby Championship (URC) against Munster in Cape Town on Saturday.
John Dobson’s charges, who won the inaugural URC title in 2022, head into their clash with the 2023 tournament’s champions with their backs to the proverbial wall as they are currently languishing at the bottom of the standings with just one win from their three matches played.
They opened their 2024/25 URC campaign with a loss against the Ospreys before bouncing back with a victory over Zebre Parma but suffered another defeat against Edinburgh (38-7) last Saturday.
All the aforementioned matches were away games for the men from the Cape and they will be hoping to get their campaign back on track against Munster – who are a side they haven’t beaten yet in five previous URC encounters – before facing another daunting challenge at home against defending champions Glasgow Warriors.
On the challenge of facing Munster, the Stormers’ backline and attack coach, Dawie Snyman, is aware of his team’s poor record against the Irish province who he expects to be in a confident mood this weekend, despite their loss to arch rivals Leinster in their Round Four encounter at Croke Park.
‘We definitely won’t live in the past’
“Well, we definitely won’t live in the past,” he said. “I think we had our opportunities when we played them before to win those games. So I think one thing, they will come with is confidence.
“They’ll have confidence playing here in Cape Town because they have performed here really well. So it’s a nice challenge for us.”
Stormers wing Leolin Zas echoed Snyman’s sentiments but said despite their poor record against Munster, his team have moved on from their previous results against Graham Rowntree’s men.
“Yeah, I think I played against Munster five times and didn’t win yet,” said Zas. “But also, I think the guys are much more calm. I don’t think we live in the past anymore.
“Like what happened, happened. And we’re just focusing on Saturday and obviously it was a tough loss against Edinburgh. But I felt like some of the things needed to happen to get us up for this game.”
The Stormers were their own worst enemies against Edinburgh on Saturday as they made a plethora of unforced errors and conceded a whopping 15 penalties compared to their opponents’ six.
Snyman, said they started the game against Edinburgh poorly and although there was unhappiness in their camp about some refereeing decisions – especially a few disallowed tries – they have only themselves to blame for that defeat.
“The first thing we’ll have to look at is ourselves,” said Snyman. “So there’s going to be tight calls. Some days it goes for you, some days it doesn’t. I don’t think he (referee Craig Evans) got it wrong, that JD (Schickerling) one, that his knee was on the ground.
“So it’s just an unfortunate thing that if the timing was probably a little bit better, you know, you just go score a try and you’re within two points with the margin.
‘We can’t blame anyone else but ourselves’
“But there were more mistakes we made in the game, which I felt was in our control, you know. So we can’t blame anyone else but ourselves.”
The Stormers got over the whitewash on four other occasions but were only rewarded with a Ruhan Nel try and Snyman feels Edinburgh deserve credit for their approach to the game and taking their chances on the day.
“Yeah, look, if you look at the scoreline, it doesn’t look good,” he added. “And we’re also not proud of the scoreline at the end, you know.
“And I think it’s a combination of us not taking our opportunities, scoring points, which Edinburgh did really well. They were very efficient, close to our line and they got their points. But like I said, we are creating opportunities, and it’s the third game of the season.
“So it’s still early days. So we’ll just keep building on those ones.”
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