Assistant Coach Dawie Snyman told a media conference hometown support will be critical when they take on the Tigers this weekend. “The role of the crowd is massive. I think if you go overseas, they always have that sense of home-ground advantage because they have smaller stadiums, so they mostly sell out. 

“And that has a huge impact on the game. I think that helps motivate the players, gives you that extra sense of having to work that little bit harder. So yeah, it makes a massive difference,” he said.

Photo: SA Rugby

Snyman says the team is working to improve in all areas after they were well and truly humiliated last weekend when they played a struggling Harlequins side in London and were thrashed 61-10. Snyman says they have put last weekend’s nightmare behind them and are putting a 100% of their focus on this weekend’s game.

“It was obviously not a great performance. There are probably many players who stayed at home and weren’t involved in that game. So, we need to look forward as quickly as possible. 

“We’ll definitely do a bit of a review in areas that we thought didn't go well on Sunday. But like I said, we need to just focus forward and make sure we get it right on Saturday.”

The Stormers’ first-choice team, who remained in Cape Town last week, trained on Friday and Monday. Part of the touring squad landed in Cape Town on Monday, while the remainder arrived back at lunchtime on Tuesday. If the Stormers want to advance in the competition, Saturday’s game will be a must-win for the hosts. 

However, facing a team packed with England rugby players will be no easy task. Snyman said they are doing a thorough review of Leicester this week, especially of the Tigers’ last match in which they thrashed Aviron Bayonnais 57-14 at home.

Saturday’s match at the DHL Stadium kicks off at 17:15.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger mvh