{"id":54505,"date":"2026-03-31T07:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=54505"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:43:43","slug":"stormers-aim-first-team-feature-champions-cup-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/31\/stormers-aim-first-team-feature-champions-cup-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"Stormers aim to be SA&#8217;s first team to feature in Champions Cup semis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>The Stormers want to be South Africa&#8217;s first team to reach the semi-finals stage of the European Champions Cup.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Stormers are aiming to at least reach the Champions Cup semifinals and become the first South African team to reach that stage, as they prepare to face Toulon in their last 16 encounter in France this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>No South African team has made it past the quarterfinals of the competition, with the Stormers and Sharks having reached that stage in the 2022-23 season, before both were dumped out by Exeter Chiefs and Toulouse respectively, while the Bulls made it to the last eight in the 2023-24 campaign but lost to Northampton Saints.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-we-want-to-go-as-far-as-we-can\">\u2018We want to go as far as we can\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Stormers boss John Dobson believes his team have finally built enough depth to be able to have a proper crack at the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to respect this competition and we want to go as far as we can. No South African team has made a semifinal, so that\u2019s something we\u2019re very aware of,\u201d said Dobson after the Stormers\u2019 URC win over Edinburgh at the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA couple of years ago, we probably wouldn\u2019t have had the capacity (to challenge on two fronts). Now, despite the injuries, I feel like we\u2019ve got a bit more depth and the ability to go full-out for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beating Toulon though is easier said than done.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-set-piece-crucial\">Set-piece crucial<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a really good Toulon team. They\u2019ve got a strong scrum and they\u2019re very fast. That caught us when we played them before, just how quick they are across the park. But what an experience for us. It\u2019ll be a part of our growth. We\u2019ll give it a full go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Stormers\u2019 only previous encounter against the French giants was last season when they went down to them 24-14 in a \u201chome\u201d clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur set-piece will be crucial. We pride ourselves on our scrum, but they\u2019re one of the best in France. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to grind them down with that size of pack,\u201d explained Dobson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey win every scrum battle. I think they\u2019re number two in France. We are going to have to spin and win. The contestable kicking game could also be an area we can use. But we\u2019re going to have to get into that transition to play with a bit of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Stormers #aim #SAs #team #feature #Champions #Cup #semis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Stormers want to be South Africa&#8217;s first team to reach the semi-finals stage of the European Champions Cup. The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54507,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54505\/revisions\/54507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}