The Stormers face a revamped Edinburgh attack that ripped Ulster apart, with the hosts also set to welcome back a South African star for Friday night’s clash at Hive Stadium.
Edinburgh opened their URC campaign with a 39-34 win in Belfast, racing into a 34-5 lead inside the opening hour before surviving a late Ulster fightback.
It was an encouraging start for new attack coach Tim Sampson, who joined Sean Everitt’s coaching staff from the Fijian Drua during the off-season and has been tasked with helping implement a faster, more expansive game.
“Yeah, a bit of a dream really,” Sampson told The Scotsman. “It’s a nine-week pre-season with some new things installed around our framework and how we want to play the game.
“They embraced the game plan and what we’ve been installing. So it was a bit of a dream to see some of the footage we played and breaking it down in the review meeting.”
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“One of the early conversations I had with Sean was just to get a bit more width into our attack, which creates more one-on-one opportunities around our ball-carriers,” he said.
“We’ve got some highly skilled players there and some good athletes through our forwards who can play a little bit wider.”
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The Stormers will arrive at Hive Stadium with momentum of their own after beginning their campaign with a 29-15 bonus-point victory against Connacht in Galway.
Sampson expects a very different examination against the Capetonians and says Edinburgh will have to match their visitors physically.
“They’re a high collision team, I love the physicality but I think we can use that to our advantage as well,” he said. “We’re just going to have to meet them front on with that, fire with fire.”
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Edinburgh began the season with 17 players unavailable, but could be strengthened by the return of Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman and hooker Ewan Ashman, provided they come through training this week.
“There’s a big chunk of guys who were one to two to three weeks away [from being fit], so hopefully we can get a few back out this week, which will be important, no doubt,” said Sampson.
Photo: Edinburgh Rugby/Facebook
The post Edinburgh to fight Stormers fire with fire appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
The Stormers face a revamped Edinburgh attack that ripped Ulster apart, with the hosts also set to welcome back a South African star for Friday night’s clash at Hive Stadium.
The post Edinburgh to fight Stormers fire with fire appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
