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Surging Stormers preparing themselves for big Treviso “shoot-out”

rugby20 October 2025 05:31
By:Gavin Rich
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Regardless of what happens in their final week of tour the DHL Stormers will end the first phase of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in a much better position than they have been at a corresponding stage of any of the previous editions of the competition.

Even in the year they won the competition or the season after that when they were beaten in a Cape Town final by Munster they inhabited the lower reaches of the log in December and were under pressure. With four wins in four starts, and just one missed point when they failed to cross the line for a fourth try against the Ospreys, plus an overwhelmingly superior points differential to the teams around them, the Stormers top the log with one game remaining before the international break.

But while four wins in five games heading into the next phase will be a comfortable position for the Stormers, their director of rugby John Dobson knows only too well just how tough the URC is. The game they play after the international break is away against Munster, who after their win over Leinster at the weekend are arguably the form team in the early rounds of competition, and then after the interlude for the EPCR games in early and mid-December they head into a series of tough derbies.

RIDING THE MOMENTUM IS IMPERATIVE

So, another win while the momentum is with them is imperative, and Dobson is also mindful that his team’s last opponents on tour, Benetton in Treviso on Saturday evening, have also been strong challengers in recent seasons for the finishing log position that he covets. With two defeats in four games so far, a Stormers win at the weekend will hurt the Italian team.

What Dobson is also mindful of is that unlike Parma, where his team won 31-13 and banked another five log points at the weekend, Treviso has not been kind to the Stormers.

“We have a huge battle against Benetton coming up. It is a shootout and really important to us,” said Dobson after his team’s five try triumph against Zebre.

“We haven’t won in Treviso before. More importantly, neither have we actually ever played well in Treviso before. So the challenge will be for us to lift ourselves for a really big battle.”

NEED TO REVERSE TREND OF NARROW LOSSES

The trend has been for the Stormers to suffer really close losses in away games against the top Italian team. In the first ever game between the sides in 2021 the Stormers started off well and then tailed off to be beaten by a narrow margin, while on their last visit to Treviso two seasons ago hooker Joseph Dweba thought he’d scored the winning try near the end only to discover he’d dived over the wrong line. The Stormers lost that game by a solitary point.

Benetton were thrashed by Edinburgh at the weekend, but it was an away game for them and the Stormers, after their experience in Parma, are well aware of how differently the Italian teams treat home games. Zebre had lost the week before they played the Stormers, but the team they sent to the Ospreys was a very different one to the one that played the home game.

“Zebre are a different proposition and a very tricky team to play at home, which is shown by them beating the Lions and Edinburgh in Parma so far this season,” he said.

Indeed, although in the early stages the Stormers looked completely dominant and set to win by a bigger margin than they did, Zebre played with great passion and made the log leaders work really hard for their haul of five log points.

“We will take a five try win. Maybe we were a bit lucky with that intercept try (to skipper Ruhan Nel) at the end but we were held up on the line two or three times too. We weren’t at our clinical best,” said Dobson.

“It felt like we were a bit flat. Whether that was because of the time we played, because it felt like a really long day building up to the game, or the pressure that Zebre exerted, we just weren’t at our best. We had a strong tempo towards the back end of last season and the start of this season and that maybe impacted us a bit.

“I hate using the term overplayed, but in some ways we probably pushed it a bit. There were times we should have been more direct. They seduced us into seeing space and then they closed it up really well.”

PACK IS GOING WELL

It was a night though where, as Dobson pointed out, the Stormers were over the line a few times only for the ball to be held up, and his forwards continued to dominate all opponents.

“Our lineout and maul is going really well. Yes, we got a couple of penalties, but we felt they came a bit later than in the other first couple of games. So we didn’t have it quite as easily at scrum time (as before) but if you consider we are without Tuks (Ntuthuko Mchunu), Neethling (Fouche), Sazi (Sandi) and Frans (Malherbe), we are doing okay. I thought Zachary Porthen (making his first start) was exceptional.

“So the set piece was nice, where we are on the log is nice, how we defended I thought was really nice. They tried to get on top of us with their contestable kicks, and obviously targeted JC (Mars) in his first URC start (playing as late replacement for the injured Seabelo Senatla) and he handled it well.”

The Stormers coach was undecided towards the end of last week as to whether one or both of his Bok duo of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse will be going home to have a short break before they join the Bok tour to the UK, France, Ireland and Italy the week after the Benetton game, but he did confirm the arrival of some additional cavalry.

“Salmaan (Moerat) wasn’t ready to play against Zebre but he is here with us now and will be available to play against Benetton and (new recruit) Cobus Reinach is flying over,” said Dobson.

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