Ruhan Nel says the DHL Stormers’ errors in the second-half slip-up away to Clermont are all fixable as they prepare to host London Irish in their first Champions Cup match at home. DYLAN JACK reports.
In their Champions Cup debut, the Stormers let a 14-3 half-time lead slip by conceding 21 unanswered points to a resurgent Clermont in the second half at the Stade Marcel Michelin.
While the Stormers did excellently to contain the threat posed by a star-studded Clermont outfit in the first half, the visitors made mistake after mistake after half-time as they struggled to adapt to the cold conditions and put themselves under heavy pressure.
“It was an awesome experience,” experienced centre Nel said on Tuesday. “The stadium is small and intimate. You could hear people walking around with drums. It’s in a small town and the local fans really value their rugby.
“After halftime, it felt like we were immediately under pressure. We made mistake after mistake. Sometimes the smart option is the easy option, even if it’s just kicking the ball downfield to ease the pressure. It was definitely a learning curve for us. We have to play a smarter plan to start turning the momentum.
“But full credit has to go to Clermont. They were really good in terms of exploiting our mistakes.”
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The Stormers on Saturday will welcome English Premiership side London Irish to Cape Town Stadium, in what will be the first Champions Cup game in the Mother City.
Nel says that the Vodacom United Rugby Championship title-holders are not about to throw their gameplan out the window.
“We are who we are. We are not going to change it up after one loss. We had never played in those conditions before, because we are really fortunate to play in warm weather in South Africa.
“Our past quality was so accurate in our transitions from defence to attack. All of these things play a role. All of a sudden you are chasing a game and feeling the pressure, so there is going to be a wrong or panicked decision. We did that to teams with our defence last season. These are all fixables.”
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