Stormers taking the fight to 'beast' in Paris

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John Dobson and Evan Roos have acknowledged the "massive task” that awaits the Stormers on Saturday, as they aim to qualify for the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup.

The Stormers will progress to the playoffs of the EPCR competition with a win against Racing 92 in Paris, and if other results go their way, but have their work cut out for them.

Out of knockout stages contention and winless since the first week of December, Racing will rely on unfamiliar conditions to the Stormers of the enclosed La Defense Arena to thwart the visitors.

"It's something different, we had our captain's run this morning and we said it's weird, playing with the roof over your head and can't see the sky," said Roos during a Stormers team announcement conference from the French capital on Friday.

The back-row powerhouse starts at No 8 while fellow Springbok Joseph Dweba returns from injury in a rejigged Stormers lineup.

“And it's a 4G pitch, one of the better 4G pitches we've played on,” Roos added.

"The atmosphere, and the sound – we all know the French crowd – it's going to be a good occasion tomorrow."

On the challenge this week, Dobson said: "We're confident but it's a massive, massive, massive task… It's a tough trip but we're in as good a space as we could be in.

"Evan's just talked about La Defense – we've never seen anything like it in the world. It's a challenging thing; we want to be better on the road but none of us have been inside what we're going into tomorrow.

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"It's one of the things about the Champions Cup, and we're thrilled to be a part of it and wouldn't change anything in the world. We want to be in it and progress in the group, it's just going to be a very tough game tomorrow."

While Racing will be desperate to bounce back to winning ways, the Stormers enter Saturday's clash with confidence after a comprehensive 40-0 win against Sale Sharks in Cape Town last week.

However, Bok stars Manie Libbok, Warrick Gelant and Deon Fourie are absent for the Cape contenders' final pool match, with an eye on a trip to Dublin in the Vodacom URC next week to tackle league leaders Leinster.

"We have to be realistic; we're missing a couple of our playmakers so we're going to have to fight. If we can fight properly … and eke out a special result, it'll be massive confidence for us," Dobson said.

"I'll be focused on the performance, that we stand up and impose our game plan, and the result will come.

"We're here to compete but people mustn't be under any illusions as to the nature and the size of the beast that we're playing tomorrow.

"It's not to get sucked into a sort of a gunfight or a shootout, or try and entertain the good rugby fans of Paris, then we'll get ourselves into trouble. The entertainment we're going to provide is going to be on the scoreboard, hopefully.

“We have three very simple things – and we can talk about that after the game – that if we get those right we'll be fine. Our plans aren't a million miles away from last week."

Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images

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