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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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J
JW 4 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

Yep, that's exactly what I want.

Glasgow won the URC and Edinburgh finished 16th, but Scotland won the six nations, Edinburgh would qualify for the Champions Cup under your system.

It's 'or'. If Glasgow won the URC or Scotland won the six nations. If one of those happens I believe it will (or should) be because the league is in a strong place, and that if a Scotland side can do that, there next best club team should be allowed to reach for the same and that would better serve the advancement of the game.


Now, of course picking a two team league like Scotland is the extreme case of your argument, but I'm happy for you to make it. First, Edinbourgh are a good mid table team, so they are deserving, as my concept would have predicted, of the opportunity to show can step up. Second, you can't be making a serious case that Gloucester are better based on beating them, surely. You need to read Nicks latest article on SA for a current perspective on road teams in the EPCR. Christ, you can even follow Gloucester and look at the team they put out the following week to know that those games are meaningless.


More importantly, third. Glasgow are in a league/pool with Italy, So the next team to be given a spot in my technically imperfect concept would be Benneton. To be fair to my idea that's still in it's infancy, I haven't given any thought to those 'two team' leagues/countries yet, and I'm not about to 😋

They would be arguably worse if they didn't win the Challenge Cup.

Incorrect. You aren't obviously familiar with knockout football Finn, it's a 'one off' game. But in any case, that's not your argument. You're trying to suggest they're not better than the fourth ranked team in the Challenge Cup that hasn't already qualified in their own league, so that could be including quarter finalists. I have already given you an example of a team that is the first to get knocked out by the champions not getting a fair ranking to a team that loses to one of the worst of the semi final teams (for example).

Sharks are better

There is just so much wrong with your view here. First, the team that you are knocking out for this, are the Stormers, who weren't even in the Challenge Cup. They were the 7th ranked team in the Champions Cup. I've also already said there is good precedent to allow someone outside the league table who was heavily impacted early in the season by injury to get through by winning Challenge Cup. You've also lost the argument that Sharks qualify as the third (their two best are in my league qualification system) South African team (because a SAn team won the CC, it just happened to be them) in my system. I'm doubt that's the last of reasons to be found either.


Your system doesn't account for performance or changes in their domestic leagues models, and rely's heavily on an imperfect and less effective 'winner takes all' model.

Giving more incentives to do well in the Challenge Cup will make people take it more seriously. My system does that and yours doesn't.

No your systems doesn't. Not all the time/circumstances. You literally just quoted me describing how they aren't going to care about Challenge Cup if they are already qualifying through league performance. They are also not going to hinder their chance at high seed in the league and knockout matches, for the pointless prestige of the Challenge Cup.


My idea fixes this by the suggesting that say a South African or Irish side would actually still have some desire to win one of their own sides a qualification spot if they win the Challenge Cup though. I'll admit, its not the strongest incentive, but it is better than your nothing. I repeat though, if your not balance entries, or just my assignment, then obviously winning the Challenge Cup should get you through, but your idea of 4th place getting in a 20 team EPCR? Cant you see the difference lol


Not even going to bother finishing that last paragraph. 8 of 10 is not an equal share.

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