‘We need to hit the ground running,’ says Stormers’ Dawie Snyman

The Stormers are targeting a good start to their United Rugby Championship (URC) season on a tricky overseas tour, with them kicking off their campaign against Connacht at the Sportsground in Galway on Friday night (kick-off 8:45pm).

Following that they head to Scotland to take on Edinburgh, and the Stormers will feel they have a good chance of coming away from this tour with at least one or even two wins.

Connacht and Edinburgh are not the most daunting sides in the URC, with the Irish team finishing eighth last season and the Scots 11th, but Galway is always a difficult place to play, and Edinburgh want to bounce back after a poor previous campaign.

Tricky

So it is tricky, but definitely doable, and Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman admitted that was why they had landed in Ireland early to prepare and that they would take what they can get from the tour.

“It makes a difference when we have a full week of preparation after getting here nice and early. On Monday we could see the travel was still a little bit in the legs of the players, but having the chance to recover and build up to Friday after arriving early was good,” said Snyman earlier this week.

“However, whether we started at home or away, it is the beginning of the season, and there will be some mistakes in the first and second games. Things will go well and other things won’t because we are still settling into one or two tweaks in our gameplan.

“We are going for whatever we can get (points-wise) on this tour. The goal is to hit the ground running and get some points out of the next two matches.”

Last season the Stormers got off to a fantastic start in the URC, winning their first eight games, before their next 10 saw four wins, a draw and five losses as they finished third on the log, before being knocked out in the semifinals by eventual champs Leinster.

Good start

They will thus want another good start this season, but will have to overcome the challenge of playing on a tricky 4G surface in both matches on tour.

“Probably the biggest challenge for us in the first two games is that we’re on a 4G pitch. I think that’s the biggest challenge for us, adapting to the surface, not being away from home,” said Snyman.

“The ball sort of bobbles around. Scrums, the speed of the ball, it all changes. If you’re defending, the team you’re playing against can generate speed because you can’t really get grip with your boots when you’re making tackles.

“There are a lot of intricate things that are different if you don’t train on it every day and don’t play on it regularly. But it also doesn’t help to make too much of a thing about it. You have to go out and play the game.

“We’re aware of one or two things we’ve learned from it previously, and we’re just trying to make those adjustments.