Stormers looking for improved defensive performance against Sharks

The Stormers will be aiming to produce a much improved defensive performance when they take on the Sharks in their massive United Rugby Championship (URC) coastal derby at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

One of the Stormers‘ biggest strengths this season, particularly during their 10-match unbeaten run over the first few months, was their extremely stingy defence, that saw them claim two clean sheets, against Leinster and Scarlets in the URC.

But in their most recent two Champions Cup games they have gone off the boil a bit, with an admittedly weakened side shipping over a half century of points in a 61-10 loss to Harlequins in London, which was their first defeat of the season.

They managed to bounce back with a stronger team at home over the past weekend, beating Leicester Tigers 39-26, but they still managed to leak four tries in the match.

With a fired up Sharks brimming with confidence after a 50-12 thumping of Clermont in Durban, they will want to put in another impressive attacking display and it will be up to the Stormers to stop them.

Defensive issue

“How we performed on defence at the back (in the recent games) was a bit of an issue, but I must also give compliments to the attack of the teams,” said Stormers defence coach Norman Laker this week.

“Although we defended poorly, they had some very good set-piece moves. Sometimes you must just clap and acknowledge the attack. The (Stormers) 10, 12 and 13 who played against Harlequins and Leicester were fairly untested combinations.

“I didn’t want to bring it up because I don’t want it to sound like an excuse. But the combination on defence between those three positions is crucial.”

Laker said that they are expecting the Sharks to bring their best team to take them on, but that the Stormers focus should be on themselves and not who they may come up against, but he admitted that the Durban sides midfield would be a powerful one, especially fronted by Andre Easterhuizen.

“I told the team that I want us to focus on ourselves because of the collapses in the midfield over the past two weeks, and not on what players the Sharks could bring,” explained Laker.

“We know the world-class rugby players they can bring. If we have our house in order, we will be competitive come this weekend.

“We know the quality rugby players Andre Esterhuizen, Ethan Hooker and Jurenzo Julius are. Andre and Ethan play for the Boks and Jurenzo is probably a great prospect for the future. So, it will be a good contest for our boys.”

The Stormers are still unbeaten in the URC and currently top the log, and they will want to keep that record intact against a Sharks team that is languishing in 14^th place on the log.