DHL Stormers coach John Dobson has gone for the continuity mantra in his selection for Saturday evening’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with Benetton.
There is just one change to the team that started last weekend’s 34-29 win over Connacht, with Leolin Zas returning to the No11 jersey for Suleiman Hartzenberg, who moves to the bench. Ben Loader was on the bench against Connacht but is not part of the match day squad for this game.
Hartzenberg was excellent on attack in last week’s game, as indeed the Stormers team as a whole was, but perhaps Dobson felt like he needed a change to sort out the ease with which the Stormers appeared to be outflanked by the Connacht outside backs in the round 15 game.
There are a few changes on the bench, with young lock Connor Evans replacing the injured flanker Deon Fourie as Dobson continues with the six - two split between forwards and backs. An additional change is the return of Springbok scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies for Paul de Wet.
Dobson has given Stefan Ungerer a vote of confidence by giving him back-to-back games as the starting scrumhalf, while his backing of Andre-Hugo Venter as the starting hooker and JJ Kotze as the back-up might be significant in the sense of the confidence that might have been derived by the Stormers’ good scrumming effort last week. The powerful scrummaging hooker Joseph Dweba again doesn’t feature.
TEAM: Warrick Gelant, Seabelo Senatla, Dan du Plessis, Damian Willemse, Leolin Zas, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Stefan Ungerer, Evan Roos, Marcel Theunissen, Paul de Villiers, Ruben van Heerden, Salmaan Moerat (captain), Sazi Sandi, Andre-Hugo Venter, Ali Vermaak.
REPLACEMENTS: JJ Kotze, Vernon Matongo, Brok Harris, JD Schickerling, Connor Evans, Louw Nel, Herschel Jantjies, Suleiman Hartzenberg.