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.
Before playing Ulster at Kingspan Stadium on Friday, the Cape men will play the Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday.
The Stormers are back in the running for a URC play-off position after defeating the Bulls 19–16 in their most recent game in Pretoria. They will play Connacht, Benetton, the Dragons, and Cardiff at home to wrap off the league phase of the competition.
Although the Stormers are now in 12th place in the standings, they are only one point away from making it into the crucial top eight, and Dobson is quietly optimistic that his squad will climb the URC table in the coming 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.
“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.”
