STORMERS WARY OF BAYONNE’S JANTJIES THREAT

FORMER Springbok and Stormers scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies will be saying salut to coach John Dobson and his team when they visit Bayonne in the Champions Cup on Friday.

The 29-year-old Kapenaar left the Stormers to join the French club at the end of last season and will welcome his former teammates to Stade Jean-Dauger in the first Champions Cup clash of the new term.

Obviously, Jantjies knows the ins and outs of the Stormers team, having spent most of his career in the blue and white hoops.

And assistant coach Norman Laker knows the Bok World Cup-winner will use his knowledge of his brasse in the Stormers team to try and get the best result for his nuwe spanmaats on Friday.

Laker says of facing Jantjies: “We are looking forward to the game and playing against our old teammate, Herschel Jantjies.

“We’ve been preparing for this game and haven’t all of a sudden started on Sunday.

“We are on par in terms of what we want to do. Herschel is a quality player; he won a Rugby World Cup with South Africa and the United Rugby Championship with us. We know him inside out and he knows our systems. It will be a challenging game.”

The Stormers have been aan die brand so far this season, winning all six of the games they played in the United Rugby Championship, most recently klapping Munster 27-21 in Ireland.

Laker, though, says they are putting the past behind them as they look to hit the ground running in the  “European Champions League”.

He added: “We do not have a lot of preparation time for this clash on Friday, but we’ve started with the foundation. That first victory at Thomond Park was put behind us, and we are putting our heads down to work towards Friday evening’s encounter

“This is a brand-new competition... ”