DHL Stormers captain Salmaan Moerat said his team was taking it game by game but he also said in the same press conference ahead of Friday night’s clash with the Dragons that the knockout phase has now effectively arrived for his team in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
And he’s not wrong either. If the Stormers lose at the Rodney Parade, they effectively drop out of the race for a top four spot, something that Moerat admitted his men still covet.
“We want to play in a home quarterfinal and that is our goal, but we are realistic and know that the only thing in our control is that we keep winning every game,” said the lock from Newport on the eve of the round 16 clash.
Defeat won’t knock the Stormers out of the battle for a top eight spot and qualification for next season’s Investec Champions Cup, but it will make their position more tenuous. So yes, it is a knockout game for the Stormers, who face a tough one against Connacht in Galway the following week.
The Vodacom Bulls won’t drop out of the top four if they lose to Glasgow Warriors in Pretoria, but if they do, they can kiss their chances of finishing top goodbye. So for them the Loftus clash on Saturday afternoon is a kind of knockout fixture too. And definitely ditto the Emirates Lions, who can’t afford to lose to Cardiff if they hope to remain in contention for a top eight finish.
Not that the three South African sides with URC ambitions are alone in going into this weekend’s fixtures on a playoff footing. Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh will feel the same when they face Zebre on Friday night, the Ospreys are in their last chance saloon at the RDS Arena against Leinster on Saturday, and neither Connacht nor Ulster can afford to lose in this round if they want to keep their ships properly afloat.
