The Stormers are not holding their breath on whether the DHL Stadium’s pitch will be in good enough condition to use one of their biggest weapons to halt a Munster onslaught.
CAPE TOWN – They want to challenge Munster in the scrums during the final of the United Rugby Championship (URC) but the Stormers are not holding their breath on whether the DHL Stadium’s pitch will be in good enough condition to use one of their biggest weapons to halt the Irish club’s onslaught.
The two teams square up on Saturday (kick-off 6.30pm) in Cape Town where the home side will bid for a second successive URC title, while their visitors will be looking to make it three away play-off wins in a row to claim the title.
Munster were under immense pressure during the scrums in their semi-final against Leinster, and the defending champions want to use their Springbok front row of captain Steven Kitshoff, tighthead Frans Malherbe and hooker Joseph Dweba to land the big blows.
The spanner in the works, though, will be the standard of the playing surface, and even after they’ve given it about two weeks to recover after the quarters and semis, Stormers coach John Dobson does not believe it will recover sufficiently ahead of Saturday.
Therefore, they are making other plans to tame the Munster beast.
“I doubt it can recover to its pre-Monster Jam (state), but I am sure it’s going to be better (than the quarters and semis),” Dobson said.
“That is our home now, and it’s miserable taking the Currie Cup team (away). It’s not good, but it’s going to be better than the Bulls and Connacht games. It’s going to be frustrating come scrum time because we think that come scrum time, that will be one of our opportunities.
“You saw what Leinster did to them at the back end of the game (the URC semi). But it’s tricky on that field. We will find other ways to win it.”
Although they’ve had some success against teams when it comes to scrumming and rolling mauls, the full might of their forwards has not been utilised in the last few home games.
Kitshoff and company have almost spent more time picking mud and dirt from their studs ahead of a scrum or line-out than actually getting any ascendency in the scrums or with rolling mauls.
And with more rain predicted for the middle of the week and Saturday, the tight fights could become another muddy rumble. And that’s probably not where Dobson wants his team to take Munster on.
The Irish club will be ready for a dogfight and will look to steer clear of the Stormers’ running game.
