Round 14 sees a big clash between the 11th-placed Stormers and the fourth-placed Reds at Newlands Stadium. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 1.05am AEST.
The Stormers are coming off of a heartbreaker of a loss against the Melbourne Rebels.
The men from Cape Town lost 30-21 in a performance that coach Allister Coetzee called “embarrassing” after the game.
A stalwart in the top eight for the past few seasons, it has been a poor one so far for the Stormers, who boast a team studded with some of the biggest stars of South African rugby.
The likes of Bryan Habana, Andries Bekker and Jean de Villiers have performed very well of late, but will be looking for their less well known team mates to stand up and produce a home effort at home this weekend against a Reds side looking to get back on track.
The Reds themselves are coming off an uncharacteristically poor performance, having gone down 27-13 to the Cheetahs in the first game of their South African tour.
Captain James Horwill bemoaned the Reds inability to execute the game plan.
“We did all the things that we said we didn’t want to do,” he said after the game.
The Queenslanders were sloppy in their finishing, having four tries disallowed due to TMO review, and they will be hoping they can improve on that this weekend.
However the loss of a dominant ball carrier and constant threat in Digby Ioane will test the other outside backs who will need to work very hard to make up for his absence.
I don’t see this one bearing a lot of five-pointers and I think it will go down to the wire, but I am saying the Reds will get up by less than six.
Can the Reds keep the pressure on the Brumbies at the top of the Australian Conference, or will the Stormers keep their slim wild card hopes alive with a win?
Find out from 1.05am AEST as we cover the action with live scores and commentary.
Jerry
Guest
Nah, but you can play in the Heartland Championship. If you can handle the might of North Otago, East Coast & Buller then maybe you're ready for the ITM.
GWS
Guest
So we can play itm then.
Positive Rugby
Guest
Well, they played well enough to win and that is always good enough.
Positive Rugby
Guest
Rubbish, many of their wins are away against Kiwi teams.
Cattledog
Roar Guru
I've said in other posts I expected the Australian conferences with the most Wallabies selected for the 25 would struggle the last two weeks. Certainly the Waratahs and Reds did but the Brumbies did get up over a pretty pedestrian Blues. This was always going to happen as these guys are in preservation mode until the Lions tour. It's human nature and nothing anyone says will change this. The Rebels had nothing to lose over a Waratahs team hell bent on not getting any injuries to their main play makers or those 'anointed'. Sometimes this works against you as we all know. If you don't go hard, that's when injuries can occur. The Stormers certainly played well tonight. Habana I thought had a great game as did Aplin. I also thought Cooper was very good for the Reds, certainly taking on the defence a lot more and was dangerous on numerous occasions, just excellent defence from the Stormers being the difference. Their number 2 (forgot his name) was also very good this morning. Reds must re-group now and put it together in Melbourne. Again, the Rebels have nothing to lose, the Reds travelling back from SA and many of their players in preservation mode. Could be a dangerous situation all round. I note the smug Kiwi remarks about the poor Australian conference has started again. And one of you has the audacity to say that changes to our schooling system can't come soon enough. LOL. Obviously your understanding of the proposed changes is very limited. Probably wouldn't require changing if our public schools weren't being inundated with Kiwi kids looking for a better life...but that's for another debate ;)
Patches
Guest
The reds can only win at home are hopeless away from Queensland
Jerry
Guest
Aussie sports fans probably do too.
Sage
Guest
No, that's Robbie
Sage
Guest
They wish
ohtani's jacket
Guest
It's actually 12 out of 13, but who's counting.
Jerry
Guest
New Zealand is a state of mind, bro.
Elisha Pearce
Expert
New Zealand IS a state of Australia isnt it?
Scot Free
Guest
So many Kiwis so ready to defect. Where do you live?
Red Kev
Guest
No they didn't, they haven't played well all season. The Reds didn't play well tonight either.
Positive Rugby
Guest
Give them due respect, they played very well tonight.
Positive Rugby
Guest
You will eat those words brother. Lets not forget them.
Positive Rugby
Guest
OK, its 11 out of the last 12 with one narrow loss away to the Crusaders. Feel better now Kiwi supporters? Let me repeat that: 11 out of 12 wins for the Reds against all Kiwi teams in their last 12 games against Kiwi Super 15 teams.
Wilson
Guest
I'm with biltongbek - the 4 points bye thing is utterly ridiculous. If you can't count (i.e adjust in your head for games played), then I don't see how it helps, and if you can? Only makes things harder to work out than they need to be.
jutsie
Guest
What do you mean? I thought link was a tactical genius
Red Kev
Guest
The Stormers aren't good opposition.