Super Rugby: Stormers have no plans to rotate team as winning run continues

Top-of-the-table Stormers have no plans to rotate their team and rest players after four successive Super Rugby victories, seeing their next match against the Blues as vital in their bid to keep their winning momentum on track.

“We are going to go full out, it’s massive,” said Stormers coach John Dobson ahead of Saturday’s clash at Newlands, where the Cape Town-based side have won three times already this season and conceded just a single try.

“The Blues always box well here, we know what sort of game it’s going to be.

“It will be physical, niggly, every cliche you can think of. But they’ve got some real x-factor too and I think it will be a classic South Africa versus New Zealand game.

“They are a much better team than their log position suggests.”

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The Blues sit third in the New Zealand Conference after two victories and two defeats.

“We had a long discussion with the players about this and we are going full metal jacket,” Dobson said. “If we can make it five from five, then we are in a really strong position.”

He said prescribed rest for international players and freshening up his team would have to wait.

“We do have a periodisation plan, but our goal was to try and win our first five matches, especially with four of them at home,” said Dobson, whose side are the only team to have won all their games so far in this year’s competition.

“Then we have a bye and then, theoretically, one or two easier games where we can create opportunities for other players. Then, hopefully, we can go on tour in a really good position points-wise and won’t be under too much pressure.”

The Stormers only travel to New Zealand and Australia in late April.

“We’ll have Crusaders, Chiefs and Brumbies away, which are not easy games,” the coach added after Saturday’s 17-7 win over the Jaguares, last year’s runners-up.

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