Cape Town - For two weeks in a row, a slow start to their matches in the Champions Cup and United Rugby Championship came to bite the Stormers in the backside, causing them to lose both of these important games.
With one match left in the URC, starting slow for a third week will not be on the cards for the home team as they look to take down Benetton in Stellenbosch on Friday (6.30pm kick-off).
A bonus-point win will keep their hopes of securing second place on the URC standings alive.
But for the Stormers to end up in the top two, they also need Edinburgh to beat Ulster in their final round-robin match.
Second-placed Ulster (64 points) are currently ahead of the defending champions by one point.
The Stormers know they can't rely on Edinburgh alone and will have to take the game to Benetton to keep the pressure on Ulster.
The Italian club are also on their own mission at the Danie Craven Stadium. They have an outside chance of making the playoffs if they can put the Stormers to the sword and win big.
That’s why Stormers backline coach Dawie Snyman said they can’t allow Benetton anything in the game.
“We need to be sharp for 80 minutes because if you relax they can get their tails up,” Snyman said.
“Give them something and they will hurt you. But what’s also important to us, is to put in a good performance defensively as well as on the attack.
“They are a very good attacking team and have shown it previously against the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup. If you look at their matches, they’re a team that starts well. And then they play attractive rugby. You can see the similarities between the Italian national side and Benetton.”
The Stormers already sealed a home quarter-final spot, now their opponents will be decided by the final round of matches this weekend.
They can only drop down to fourth if they lose without getting any points against Benetton. But it’s more likely that they’ll stay in third or move up to second depending on the Ulster/Edinburgh match, also on Friday.
According to Snyman, there won’t be any easy quarter-finals so they’ll have to focus on finishing strongly against Benetton before the playoffs take place.
“We want to build into that sort-of quarter-final scenario. We want to work on a few things and make sure that is spot on. It’s about some guys getting game time, so that we can make sure we are ready for that quarter-final in a few weeks,” he said.
“But we are also not looking past the quarters, because you might secure a home semi-final but then not make it past the quarter-final.
“That pressure we put on ourselves is because of our performance. We didn’t want that result against Munster, so we want to make sure all areas of our game are corrected this weekend.”
After losing their winning streak at Cape Town Stadium, the Stormers will be looking to maintain the one they have at the Danie Craven Stadium, their second home in the competition.
So far they have won all of their URC games in Stellenbosch and the Benetton one can be another one to add to the list.
@LeightonK