Cardiff Rugby are almost up to full strength for their BKT United Rugby Championship quarter final clash with the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday (30 May – 2.30pm).
Corniel van Zyl’s side had to play without Josh Adams, Alex Mann, Josh McNally, Mason Grady and Callum Sheedy when they met the Stormers at the Arms Park two weeks ago yet still managed to conjure up a bonus-point win to take them into the play-off rounds for the first time.
Their 22-16 triumph moved them up into sixth place to earn them a return clash with the 2022 champions. Fully understanding his side will have to play even better than they did at the Arms Park to move into the semi-finals, Van Zyl will be delighted to have four of his five missing players back in contention.
Only outside half Sheedy remains unfit and the injection into the matchday 23 of Welsh internationals Adams, Grady and Mann, as well as former England second row McNally, will give the coaches a few selection headaches.
In Adams’ absence, Jacob Beetham came up with two tries on the wing, while Taine Basham stepped into the back row in place of Mann and picked up the man of the match award. Grady can feature at either centre or wing, while McNally’s power and presence could be key in thwarting the giant Stormers pack.
“It’s the first time we’ve reached this stage and the goal at the start of the season was to get into the play-offs after missing out by a point last season,” said Van Zyl.
“But we didn’t say we wanted to stop at the quarter-finals. We are looking forwards and without wishing to sound arrogant or getting ahead of myself, we also looked at what things might be like next week.
“We don’t see this game as the end of the road for us, we’re looking forwards. It will take a massive effort to beat the Stormers in Cape Town, where they are always so strong.
“I know people will write us off but we are going to give it a real go. The pressure will all be on the Stormers playing at home in front of 50,000 fans and they’ll want to pay us back for beating them two weeks ago.
“We know they’ll want to go to their powerful scrum and their driving line out early on in the game as they did at the Arms Park. They are definitely focus points for us and we have to present the right pictures to the referee in those two key phases.
“We took a lot of confidence from beating them at home two weeks ago and we have to replicate what we did then at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town.”
The Stormers suffered a training ground collision between full back Damien Willemse and wing Leolin Zas that left both players needing treatment. Springbok outside half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu sat out training on Wednesday, but is expected to be fit to play.