Salmaan Moerat warns Stormers must get their discipline right against La Rochelle

Discipline has been a major issue for the Cape Town side in recent weeks, with large portions of their last two matches played a man down.

In their top-of-the-table Vodacom URC game against Munster, the Stormers picked up two yellow cards, leaving them briefly reduced to 13 players within the first 20 minutes.

Then last weekend in Bayonne, lock Adre Smith was shown a red card for a reckless stamp, forcing John Dobson's team to battle hard once more.

Moerat concedes that this recurring problem cannot continue at this level - especially against a world-class team like La Rochelle.

"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."

Despite the few moments where players have lost control, Moerat has been heartened by his side's resilience under pressure.

The Stormers fought back for a hard-earned win against Munster and overcame Bayonne even while playing a man down for much 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 Stormers captain added.

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