John Dobson hails ‘absolutely immense’ Springboks returnees as Stormers set sights on URC play-offs
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson and backline stars Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse.
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson has set his sights on a top six finish in the United Rugby Championship (URC) as he welcomes back stars for their upcoming tour to the United Kingdom.
The men from the Cape are set to face the Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday before taking on Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium next Friday.
After clinching a hard-fought 19-16 victory over the Bulls in Pretoria in their previous match, the Stormers are back in the hunt for a URC play-off spot and will finish the league phase of the competition with home matches against Connacht, Benetton, the Dragons and Cardiff.
The Stormers currently occupy 12th spot in the standings but are just one point off reaching the all-important top eight and Dobson is quietly confident his team will move up the URC table over the next few weeks.
‘That should put us properly in the mix’
“We go on tour now and then we have got a nice four-game home run,” he said. “If we can get one win on tour and 18 out of 20 points from the home games, that should put us properly in the mix. It will put us up to sixth if other results go as planned.
“You don’t really want to finish eighth because you are then going to the Aviva to play a fully loaded Leinster.
“Sixth could see us play the Sharks or the Bulls which would be fantastic for us.
“We want all the teams competing with us to lose all the time. You concede that Leinster, Glasgow, Bulls and Sharks are going to finish above us, so let them go.
“But let Munster, Scarlets, Cardiff, Edinburgh and all these guys lose.
“I’m just sorry we aren’t going to get a home quarter-final. I think it is too late for that unfortunately. That’s extremely unlikely.
“But we should be in the top eight and the play-offs and hopefully good enough to go pretty far. Anything can happen after that.”
After winning the inaugural URC title in 2022 and finishing as runners-up in 2023, the Stormers were lost in the quarter-finals to last year’s eventual champions Glasgow Warriors.
Boosted by Springboks stars’ return
Their 2024/25 campaign has been a tough one as the team has been decimated by injuries but they received a boost when Springboks backline stars Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse were ruled fit for their upcoming tour along with fellow utility back Suleiman Hartzenberg and second-row Gary Porter.
“Having these players back is absolutely immense. That’s going to be a massive boost for our game model,” said Dobson.
“It’s fantastic to welcome back such key players and they are all keen to make a big impression. It will boost morale and allow us to be more attacking.”
