Stormers hunt second straight URC win on the road
· Citizen
The Stormers have been handed a significant boost by Springbok captain Siya Kolisi slotting straight into their starting team for their United Rugby Championship (URC) match-up against Scottish side Edinburgh at the Hive Stadium on Friday night (kick-off 8.45pm).
Visit newsbetting.club for more information.
Kolisi, who started his senior career with Western Province in 2011, and then made 118 appearances for the Stormers from 2012 until he left for the Sharks in 2021, is finally back where it all started and will be aiming to make an immediate impact.
He takes his usual No 6 jersey, in a Stormers backrow featuring Louw Nel and Hacjivah Dayimani, which allows young Riley Norten to shift back into the second row alongside JD Schickerling.
The only other change to the forward pack sees Bok loosehead prop Ntuthuko Mchunu slot straight into the front row with Andre-Hugo Venter and Neethling Fouche.
In the backline, exciting young flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed makes his first URC start as he comes in for the injured Jurie Mathee, and Stefan Ungerer starts at scrumhalf in place of Andre Warner who drops to the bench.
Encouraging performance
“Last week’s performance against Connacht was encouraging in many ways, but we would like to see a more ruthless edge to our game, which we have worked on this week,” said Stormers director of rugby John Dobson.
“We know that Edinburgh is a tough place to play and we have some experience coming in, with Siya, Ntuthuko and Stefan included along with Yaqeen Ahmed and Wandile Mlaba, who are both really exciting young players.
“It will take a big effort from all 23 players to get the result before we go back to Cape Town for what will be a crucial period in the context of our season.”
Earlier in the week, Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani said he was pleased with the way the players managed to get entries into the Connacht 22m, but he hoped to see the backline finishing off the good work done by the forwards to get them into those positions.
“We felt we got into their 22 very efficiently and we didn’t really get the points to show for it so we definitely have to improve our conversion rate. We were happy with the way we defended and dealt with their kicking game and their maul, so it is probably just our conversion rate we should be really concerned about.”
The Stormers are targeting a second straight win on the road, after beating Connacht in Ireland last weekend, and are hoping to leave Scotland with two wins and plenty of momentum as they host fierce coastal rivals the Sharks in Cape Town next weekend.