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Cape Town - While the Stormers face a daunting prospect when they host the Sharks at Newlands on Saturday, captain Jean de Villiers says they will continue to introduce a new brand of rugby in the Cape side.
Lying 11th overall after two successive defeats, the Stormers must shine against the SA conference leaders if they hope to remain in contention for Vodacom Super Rugby honours.
De Villiers felt his team should persevere with the intention to offer more on attack, instead of reverting to the dour defensive pattern that made them SA conference winners for the past two seasons.
"We are not going to change what we started. It was what we decided as a group last year," De Villiers said.
"We know how we want to play, and we are not going to change everything just because of one or two defeats.
"We will stick with what we’re doing and hope it works.
"You have to look at the way we played holistically, and not just at the result (last week). If you look at the two tries we conceded, it was an easy 14 points for them (the Cheetahs).
"We were very close, and it’s not as if we’re playing bad rugby, we are just making crucial errors and we let it slip last week."
Like the Stormers, the Sharks have also been plagued by a steady string of injuries, but coach John Plumtree felt the physicality of the home side posed the biggest challenge.
He believed the visiting team's physical capacity may be slightly compromised with the loss of injured loosie Jacques Botes, who has been in great form of late.
"Losing Jacques, given the form that he was in, is a big blow for us," Plumtree said.
"We are very happy to have Jean Deysel coming back in. He was playing really good rugby before he got injured and his return is a timely boost for us.
"Against the Stormers you need that physicality and he'll come off the bench and provide that."
