The DHL Stormers look set to welcome back a star stalwart as well as blood a future star for the first time when they face the Dragons in their penultimate Vodacom United Rugby Championship league match at DHL Stadium on Saturday evening (kick-off 6:15pm).
As was confirmed by Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman and Springbok utility back Damian Willemse earlier in the week, Manie Libbok has been back in training and is in the selection mix for this weekend’s game.
And the now retired Stormers veteran prop Brok Harris, who doubles as one of the scrum coaches, announced at his exit media interview that 21-year-old Zachary Porthen will be his replacement.
Whether Libbok is selected straight back into the starting team or, as head coach John Dobson suggested after the 56-5 rout of Benetton last time out, makes his return off the bench will become clearer when the team is announced on Friday.
The return to fitness after an absence that dates back to the Leinster game in Dublin in the second half of January, when Libbok was helped from the field with an injured leg, does present Dobson with a selection quandary and the potential for Willemse to have to try on yet another new Stormers jersey with a different number - this time the number 13 signifying outside centre.
JUST NUMBERS ON THE BACK
Willemse has operated there in partnership with Dan du Plessis, but lined up as a 12 (Willemse) and 13 (Du Plessis) combination as per the match program, with the pair swapping roles according to the match situation and the opposition when on the field.
“It is just numbers on the back and we determine how we are going to play during the week, we have just had a meeting on this very issue this morning,” said Willemse at the start of the buildup week to the Dragons game.
However, with Libbok being best suited to flyhalf and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu having played often as an inside centre, and having that pair in the 10/12 decision-making axis is certainly an exciting prospect for the Stormers if it does happen, Willemse could soon find himself operating officially as an outside centre.
“A backline that reads Manie at 10, Sacha at 12 and Damian at 13 is certainly something that I’d like to see before the end of the season once they are all fit,” said Dobson in a press conference a few weeks ago.
That day when they are all available has now arrived, but assistant coach Snyman hinted that playing all those star Boks in the same backline is not something that will happen straight away.
“Continuity is important for us, particularly at this stage of the season, and it is important for us to keep our rhythm as a group and a team while also at the same time making sure the next in line is ready,” said Snyman.
“The Dragons are last on the log, but we are not taking anything for granted as they have been unlucky in several games. They are often in the game up until the last 10 minutes, and we’ve got to keep that in mind (when selecting the team).”
In other words the Stormers might well reintroduce Libbok off the bench this week, thus allowing him to ease his way back while at the same time preserving what worked so well against Benetton.
Libbok can come on at flyhalf in the second half with Feinberg-Mngomezulu moving to inside centre and Willemse to outside in preparation for starting with that configuration against Cardiff in the last league match the following week.
RICH AT THE BACK BUT THIN UP FRONT
While Dobson has to come up with a selection that gets around an embarrassment of riches at the back, it is a different story at the front of the forward pack, where the suspension handed to Neethling Fouche and the injuries to Frans Malherbe and Brok Harris, with the latter being forced to call time on his long career, has created a mini-crisis at tighthead.
Sazi Sandi got on the wrong side of the referee’s scrum interpretations in the game against Benetton, something that saw him yellow carded at the end of the first half, but he is a rated player who should profit from having another game as the starting No 3.
It’s who backs him up that is the big question, at least until Fouche is back the following week.
That’s where the new star comes in, for it looks like that will be last year’s Junior Springbok captain Porthen, with Harris pretty much announcing that change.
“These are challenging times with the injuries among the props, but we want to help Zach get a taste of senior professional rugby,” said Harris.
“Neethling is back next week and then Zach will have a game under his belt.”
Tightheads take a while to develop so Porthen, who made his Western Province senior debut in a Currie Cup game last year, is being thrown in at the deep end.
He is considered a star of the future, as shown by him being one of the five young players who had their contracts extended by the Stormers last week, and will add to the healthy list of young players who the Stormers have blooded during the course of the season (think Jonathan Roche, JC Mars, Vernon Matongo etc).
Porthen tasted success with the UCT Ikeys in the recent Varsity Cup and the Wynberg High School old boy will be eager to add a URC debut to his already impressing growing CV.
Dobson though will be well aware that he is pushing the youngster early and will be hoping there aren’t any injuries to Fouche and Sandi heading into the playoffs, with the Sharks’ Springbok laden scrum the Stormers’ likely quarterfinal opponents in early June.