VIDEO: Why Stormers are perfectly suited to deal with Marcus Smith
12/12/2024 03:51 AM
SPOTLIGHT: Stormers assistant coach Norman Laker believes there is something very familiar about Marcus Smith's approach to games.
The Capetonians are in London preparing for their Champions Cup Round Two clash against Harlequins and flyhalf Smith is considered a major threat.
The 25-year-old England international can be a menace when he runs with the ball and his unpredictable nature can be a headache for opposition teams.
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"It's tough to know what he is going to do if he doesn't know himself what he is going to do," said Laker.
"All I can tell you is to prepare. From what I've seen, we played against him twice now - against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town and then we played the Harlequins two years ago - so I know he is a quality rugby player.
"We obviously watched him a lot at international level.
"I know more or less what to expect of him as a rugby player and what we need to do to make sure that we can give ourselves a good opportunity in this game."
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The Stormers also have unpredictable playmakers in their squad, and while most of them are unavailable this week because of injuries, they have played a role in their own way in preparing the team for Saturday's showdown with Smith.
"We are fortunate enough to have players like Warrick [Gelant], Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], Manie {Libbok] and Jen-Luc du Plessis training at the HPC in Bellville and those players are quality players and sometimes they also don't know what they going to do next," Laker explained.
"I actually think it is good preparation for ourselves. We are training amongst ourselves to prep for a guy like Marcus Smith.
"He is a quality player and he can put anyone in a hole and create something out of nothing.
"It won't be something new because some of the guys played against him at international level as well.
"With that style of play, if you do put him under pressure there can be one or two mistakes."
@rugby365com
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