Stormers looking for small improvements against Ospreys after Leinster rout

It was only the first game of the new United Rugby Championship (URC) season, and despite a runaway victory, the Stormers believe there is still plenty of room for improvement heading into the next couple of rounds.

While they thrashed defending champions Leinster 35-0, the Stormers won’t dwell too long on the result, with the Ospreys making the trip to the Mother City for another Friday night clash at the DHL Stadium.

The Cape side put in a clinical second-half performance thanks to their forwards and a contribution of 20 points by flyhalf Jurie Matthee, to overpower the Irish giants, but forwards coach Rito Hlungwani insists there are still key areas to work on ahead of their next outing.

After facing the Welsh side — who they haven’t beaten in their last three encounters — the Stormers will embark on their first overseas tour, where they’ll need every bit of momentum to turn around their poor away record. According to Hlungwani, they were pleased with the way the team started the season, but they remain grounded.

“The big thing for this week is improvement,” Hlungwani said.

“What can we improve? Where can we be better? That is our mindset. There are small things we didn’t do well, and we want to fix those, while also building on what worked last Friday night. Things like our timing in the lineout, how we link up with the backline — those aspects usually improve the more you play together. But we know we could’ve been more clinical.”

The Stormers are currently without several of their star players, which has seen them revert to a more structured game, though they did start to give the ball more width towards the end of the Leinster clash. Their scrum and rolling maul overpowered the Irish team, and those weapons are expected to play a big role again this Friday.

While their DNA remains rooted in attacking rugby, supporters can expect to see more variety in their play.

They are without Springboks Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Damian Willemse, and the injured Warrick Gelant — their natural gamebreakers. Without these sparks, the Stormers will look to their forwards to create the platform that unleashes their backline.

“We want to have more than one or two ways of scoring tries. At the end of the day, it’s about putting points on the board. If the maul is working, we’ll use it. But we also want to attack on the counter or from starter moves.

“The Ospreys are a team that never go away — just look at their performance in the loss against the Bulls (53-40). We can’t take them lightly, so for us it’s all about improving on our last performance. We’ll be ready for a tough battle up front.”