The Stormers will be huge favourites to be in pole position in the South African conference after the completion of the next round of super rugby fixtures.
Pundits and fans alike will be expecting the Stormers to bag a comfortable win against the Rebels in Cape Town on Saturday while the Bulls face an uphill battle to take anything away from their game against the Chiefs in New Zealand.
Stormers Eye Top SA Spot
At the moment the Bulls find themselves one point ahead of the Stormers but they will be furious with themselves for not beating the mediocre Blues last week. On paper that was always going to be the easier of their two games in New Zealand and after blowing it against the Blues they now come up against a highly charged Chiefs team. The Chiefs will be smarting after a number of key decisions went against them last week in Wellington and they will see this week’s game against the Bulls as a must win to all but guarantee them a place in the playoffs.
The Bulls have a solid squad to choose from and their performance against the Blues came as a bit of a shock. The Pretoria based team was looking immense before they left for their tour of Australasia and some were starting to hype them up as possible underdog victors of the tournament. Last week though a number of their old stalwarts failed to turn up and they will need to put in a much improved performance this time out against the Chiefs. Victor Matfield and Pierre Spies were not influential enough up front and Spies was guilty of giving away a number of crucial penalties. Matfield dominated the lineouts as usual but unfortunately didn’t offer much else and was often guilty of standing aimlessly in the backline. People will be expecting a lot more from the experienced Springbok players in the team.
The Stormers are coming off a bye and will be looking for a much improved performance from two weeks ago when they scraped past the Brumbies. While the Rebels have arguably been the most improved side this year, the Stormers will be eyeing a bonus point win in front of an expectant Newlands crowd. The Cape side has relied heavily on forwards Duane Vermeulen and Schalk Burger recently and they will be looking at their backline to show more creativity and better finishing skills this time out. They have a lot of exciting talent in their backline and the likes of Cheslin Kolbe, Damian de Allende and flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis will want to put on a show on Saturday evening.
It looks a safe bet that both the Bulls and Stormers will still be in the tournament when the playoffs start but coming out on top of the South African conference is extremely important. For the South African team finishing in one of the lower playoff positions on the combined log, they will most likely face another daunting overseas trip to play one of the top Australasian sides and chances are that their tournament will end there. This is a crucial weekend for both the Bulls and the Stormers but realistically expect the Stormers to reclaim top spot in the South African conference.
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