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Bok players want shot at Leinster reveals Stormers coach

Seabelo Senatla of DHL Stormers is tackled by Rob Russell of Leinster during the United Rugby Championship match between DHL Stormers and Leinster at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo By Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

There will be a huge spotlight on the Stormers’ top-of-the-table URC clash against Leinster this week, but the Capetonians will be using the fixture to help them focus on the bigger picture.

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That bigger picture is a home Champions Cup Round of 16 clash against Premiership giants Harlequins a week later in Cape Town.

The Stormers’ Springboks, which includes World Cup winners Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe and Damian Willemse, had the option of staying in South Africa and using the Currie Cup to get ready for the play-off.

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However, they sent a clear message to Dobson about their priorities.

“We could think romantically and go try and beat Leinster, but the truth is those guys [Boks] haven’t played for two months,” said Dobson.

“It’s a game that will help us get ready for Harlequins, which will be a great occasion. Whether we go further into Europe, I don’t know. Hopefully, we have 50,000 people at Cape Town Stadium.

“We got a home European knockout, so it will be very special for us.

“We offered the Sharks [Currie Cup] game to the Springboks to get ready, but they said “no” because they really want to get integrated and go to Leinster, which is great.

“I do suspect that we are going to be ring rusty.

“We prepared hard, but Kitsie [Kitshoff] and co haven’t played since the middle of January, so we have to be realistic.

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“We haven’t got the home [URC] semifinal yet, so we will probably have to win two of our last three games, but if we can pick up a point or two at Leinster it will certainly help us.”

Coaching responsibilities
With the Leinster game happening in Dublin on Friday and Western Province’s Currie Cup clash against the Sharks in Durban taking place on Sunday, Dobson confirmed he will be at both games.

However, he will be sharing the coaching responsibilities this week.

“[Skills coach] Labeeb [Levy] will stay with the Currie Cup team,” Dobson explained.

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“We will get to the [Sharks] game – we [Stormers] play Friday night and the other game is Sunday, but Labeeb will run the programme.

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“We did a lot of the prep work already and it is not fair for us to fly in on the day of the [Currie Cup] game and take over from Labeeb, so he will run it, but we will all be at the game in Durban.”

Stormers centre Ruhan Nel will remain in Cape Town this week as he awaits the birth of his first child.

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JW 49 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

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F
Flankly 1 hour ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

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