UNBEATEN STORMERS CAN’T BELIEVE THE HYPE AHEAD OF LA ROCHELLE CLASH

COACH John Dobson’s Stormers have not yet lost a single match in all competitions this season.

Ex-Stormer Dillyn Leyds and his La Rochelle teammates are the latest European team set to challenge the Kapenaars' dominance when they lock horns in the Champions Cup at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium at 3pm on Saturday.

The Stormers beat Bayonne in their tournament opener last weekend and have also won their first six matches in the United Rugby Championship.

La Rochelle, meanwhile, beat Leicester convincingly last weekend to set up a proper fight.

The fact that the Stormers are unbeaten despite having played without their Springboks and with a total of nine Bokke returning on Saturday, they are expected to continue on their good run.

But Dobson is cautious, saying: “It would be quite a blow to us if we do not get things right on Saturday.

“There is a lot of hype around us, and we can’t believe that. We must stick to our processes, as terrible as the cliche is, and train as hard as we did.

“There are still some things that we are not doing properly. We looked at a video this morning [Wednesday].

“We also can’t relax and think our resilience will bail us out of trouble. This is a big challenge. We think we have the squad to get out of our group, and from here, you must win home games to do that.”

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Dylan Maart, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Oli Kebble, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Ruan Ackermann, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Imad Khan, 23 Wandisile Simelane