Salmaan Moerat is bracing for a bruising battle with Wallabies giant Will Skelton when the Stormers face La Rochelle in their Investec Champions Cup clash on Saturday.

The Stormers captain knows the challenge awaiting his pack if the 145kg lock takes the field at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, and he’s relishing the opportunity to test himself against one of Europe’s most dominant forwards.

“Any player really wants to measure himself against one of the best, and if he plays, it’ll be a massive challenge for us,” Moerat said.

“If he doesn’t, I think it’s still a great team nonetheless which is well-coached so I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference. However Skelton is a big figure – literally and figuratively.”

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The 33-year-old Australian has been a cornerstone of La Rochelle’s success in recent years, helping the French side claim back-to-back European titles in 2022 and 2023. His impact at set-piece time is unparalleled.

“He’s probably one of the best maul-setters in the world,” Moerat said. “I think if he’s in the team, they get a lot of ascendancy in their maul and scrum and that’s something they take pride from so that is certainly something that he’s exceptional at so if he is playing, it’s a challenge we’ll have to muscle up to.”

While the Skelton subplot adds intrigue, the Stormers’ biggest battle may be with themselves. The Cape Town side has been plagued by ill-discipline in recent weeks, playing a large chunk of its last two matches with 14 men.

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Against Munster in their top-of-the-table Vodacom URC clash, the Stormers received two yellow cards and were briefly down to 13 men inside the opening 20 minutes. Last weekend in Bayonne, lock Adre Smith was sent off for a reckless stamp, forcing John Dobson’s men to dig deep once again.

Moerat admits the pattern is unsustainable at this level.

“We played about 50 minutes with 14 men these past couple of games, and at this level, it’s unacceptable. It really challenges the team on defence and on attack,” he said.

“The controllable penalties are the ones we can work on, but we can’t get into any stupid, off-the-ball stuff.”

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Despite the red-mist moments, Moerat has been encouraged by his side’s resilience under pressure. They emerged from the Munster cauldron with a hard-fought come-from-behind victory and beat Bayonne despite being a man down for most of the second half.

“There’s a lot of resilience in the team, which we saw especially in that Munster game when we were down to 13 in the first 20 minutes. There’s certainly a lot of fight in the team,” the captain said.

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