There’s been a lot of positivity around the DHL Stormers in the pre-season, and for good reason, but the Cape side are bracing for a difficult start to their Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign as they go in search of an improvement on last year’s third place and semifinal exit.
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson and skipper Ruhan Nel were both adamant at a press conference last week that the competitive showing against Leinster in last year’s semifinal in Dublin had boosted the squad’s confidence.
Were it not for a stupid card late in the game, they could well have won at the AVIVA Stadium after starting the match as rank underdogs.
The showing put in against the All Blacks just three weeks into their pre-season should also have been a confidence booster. The scores were locked at 14-all with 12 minutes to go and some 50/50 calls against the Cape side played a big role in the late capitulation that saw them eventually lose 38-21.
If you’ve gone toe to toe with Leinster, which is almost an Ireland team, and then the All Blacks, you shouldn’t fear Connacht, who have always been ranked as the less glamorous of the Irish provincial teams, should you?
Well, yes and no. The Stormers should be good enough to beat Connacht, at least once they are approaching full strength later in the season.
But right now they are far from full strength, and are not just missing their Springboks, which there are now several, but also a few players to early season injuries.
“At this stage, without the Springboks and with a few injuries, we’re a little bit skinny,” admitted attack coach Dawie Snyman.
With Paul de Villiers now a Bok and Deon Fourie back with the national team, the Bok complement at the Stormers has increased since this time last year. Among the other players missing are Damian Willemse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach, Zachary Porthen plus the returning star trio of Siya Kolisi, Cheslin Kolbe and Wilco Louw.
That’s nine players missing to Bok duty, while another Bok, utility forward Ben-Jason Dixon, is with the Stormers in Ireland after being released from the national squad after the third Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry test against the All Blacks in Soweto due to concussion symptoms that are still being managed.
The fact that Dixon has travelled with the squad appears to indicate he may be involved in the second tour match against Edinburgh next week but it looks unlikely he will feature against Connacht.
“We just had to make sure we got the best possible team on the field, while backing our training methods and the way we prepare among ourselves,” said Snyman, who added that the recent warmup game against the Bulls, which the Stormers lost in Paarl, had featured some positive aspects but had also served as an indicator of how injuries have impacted on depth.
The Stormers team for the Connacht game will only be announced on Thursday afternoon so we will have to wait until then before we know exactly who is playing in Friday night’s game in Galway, but areas of interest include the midfield, where Markus Muller may be in the mix after his composed Currie Cup season for the Stormers XXIII but there is also Jonathan Roche, who faced the All Blacks, in the mix. Wandisile Simelane could play at outside centre with Nel captaining the team from inside centre.
Ready to hit the ground running in the @Vodacom #URC in Galway on Friday night. #CONvSTO #inittogether pic.twitter.com/nRh7FojDDr
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) September 21, 2026
One thing is certain, Connacht will be tough opponents, as they showed when they won the Cape Town game in April, a result that played a big role in derailing the Stormers’ quest for top spot on the final URC log.
“Connacht’s a team in their second year with Stuart Lancaster. He’s got a certain way of playing, and Connacht have always had an identity around them and the way they want to play. They like to play with ball in hand,” said Snyman.
“They’re a dangerous team. Defensively they were one of the top defensive teams in the URC in terms of the amount of tackles they made. They’re disciplined, a tough team to break down. They’re an all-round team that’s going to challenge us everywhere, and they’ve added one or two new signings as well.”
Add to that the fact that the game will be played on a 4G surface, which has not been kind to the Stormers in the past, and it is clear that while the general outlook for the season ahead is a positive one, there is a very tricky hurdle to overcome first up.