‘We need to respect the Champions Cup,’ says Dobson as Stormers target final

The Stormers are gunning for a bonus point win over Bristol Bears to get their Challenge Cup campaign up and running on the best possible note. The Stormers will be going all out to reach the final of the Champions Cup this season, or at least the semis, for them to properly respect the competition, according to Director of Rugby John Dobson ahead of their opening match against the Bristol Bears at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday. It should be a cracking encounter, with the Stormers backing their best possible team, outside of injuries, to take on the English Premiership side and try to get their campaign up and running on the best possible note. The furthest a South African team has reached in the Champions Cup is the quarterfinals, which the Stormers achieved in 2022-23 and the Bulls in 2023-24, while the Cape side have been knocked out in the last 16 in two of their past three campaigns. Pressure mounting With pressure mounting on the poor performances of SA teams in the competition, and France and England pushing for a possible smaller version without the SA teams, it is vitally important for a local team to go far this season, and Dobson is backing the Stormers to do that. “We need a South African team to make a semi-final or a final this season. From our side, we want to respect it, and the way to do that is to do well in it,” explained Dobson. “I think our inventory for the public here in Cape Town would look poorer without this and without our participation. It’s a prestigious competition. We want to test ourselves against the best teams in the world. We want to be at the top table of world rugby, so we’re desperate to stay part of it. “It’s behind the URC (in popularity) with the South African public. People now know who the Ospreys are, but we’ve never played Bristol before. We’ve never played Bordeaux before. There’s a constant education piece around this tournament.” From previous experiences the Stormers know how important securing a home knockout is, as their only last 16 win was played at home, while last season they were just pipped by Toulon in France. Bonus points They are also well aware how important bonus points are, as despite finishing with the same wins as Harlequins last campaign, they finished behind them in the pool a point behind them, and thus consigned them to an away playoff. This season the Champions Cup have changed the bonus point rule, which previously was scoring four tries, to now ending with three tries more than the opposition, and the Stormers know how important defence will be in them achieving that. “We have been discussing the bonus point thing and we know we have to be three tries ahead now (to secure it),” said Stormers captain Ruhan Nel this week. “The Stormers have always been known to have a good defensive system. It’s fun to actually defend against teams that want to run at us. It tests the system and we enjoy it. “So we don’t mind not having the ball. I’d rather us go set-piece to set-piece and back our defensive systems than being at sixes and sevens, scrambling on defence.”