The Stormers will not change their game plan after they welcome London Irish to the Cape Town City Stadium for their Champions Cup encounter on Saturday evening, regardless of their disappointing opening loss towards Clermont in France.
The Stormers have been upended by their French hosts final week, after taking a 14-3 lead into the half-time break, as Clermont responded with 21 unanswered factors within the second half to seal a 24-14 win.
The guests have been unable to get their common working game going as they struggled to maintain maintain of the ball, and have been smothered after they had it, however regardless of these challenges they are going to again themselves in beneficial residence situations this weekend.
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“We are who we are. We are not going to change it up after one loss. We had never played in those conditions before, because we are really fortunate to play in warm weather in South Africa,” mentioned skilled Stormers centre Ruhan Nel.
“Our past quality was so accurate in our transitions from defence to attack. All of these things play a role. All of a sudden you are chasing a game and feeling the pressure, so there is going to be a wrong or panicked decision. We did that to teams with our defence last season. These are all fixables.”
Valuable expertise
Nel believed the expertise in Clermont would make them a stronger workforce and assist put together them for future matches within the competitors in France.
“It was an awesome experience. The stadium is small and intimate. You could hear people walking around with drums. It’s in a small town and the local fans really value their rugby,” mentioned Nel.
“After halftime, it felt like we have been instantly beneath strain. We made mistake after mistake. Sometimes the good choice is the straightforward choice, even when it’s simply kicking the ball downfield to ease the strain.
“It was definitely a learning curve for us. We have to play a smarter plan to start turning the momentum. But full credit has to go to Clermont. They were really good in terms of exploiting our mistakes.”
London Irish have had a torrid time of it this season within the English Premiership and so they additionally misplaced their Champions Cup opener towards Montpellier Herault, so they are going to be determined for a confidence boosting upset over the Stormers to assist strive kick-start a turnaround in their season.
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