There should be a few faces familiar to the DHL Stormers lining up in opposition when they host the Sale Sharks in what for them is a make or break group Investec Challenge Cup game at DHL Stadium on Saturday.
Big Cobus Wiese was a late withdrawal from the Sharks team, who were the subject of some mischievous questioning by the owners of the other Sharks, the ones from Durban, some time back, that lost at home to Bristol in the English Premiership at the weekend. The lock, who also played flank during his time with Western Province and the Stormers, suffered back spasms during the warmup but he could well be back when his team visits his old stomping ground for this important game.
Flanker Ernst van Rhyn, a former national age-group leader, was a Stormers player this time last year and an occasional captain to boot, while another former Stormers player is the flyhalf/centre Robert du Preez, who moved back to Durban to play for the Sharks under the coaching of his father, Robert senior, before being joined by his brothers Jean-Luc and Dan in moving to England.
The local knowledge of so many of the Sale players should make them dangerous opponents for the Stormers, and Stormers coach John Dobson did say after his team beat LaRochelle in mid-December that Saturday’s game will be as tough as that one was.
“The Sale game will be an important one for us as we will need to win if we want to advance to the next round and they will be as tough as opponents and as difficult to beat as LaRochelle were,” said Dobson.
The win over the competition champions kept the Stormers alive in the Champions Cup and it also kick-started a three game winning sequence that has pretty much changed their season. After the Stormers came back from a Vodacom United Rugby Championship tour without a win, they were on the verge of a mini-crisis, but three wins against big teams - LaRochelle, the Vodacom Bulls and the Hollywoodbets Sharks - has set up their season for them.
With four teams out of a pool of six advancing to the round of 16, a win over Sale would probably be enough if it is achieved with a try scoring bonus point. Alternatively, a win and then a bonus point in the away clash with Stade Francais in Paris will be enough.
While Dobson went to Welford Road in Leicester for the the first match in the Champions Cup with an understrength team, he has said he will go full strength for both the next two Champions Cup games due to their being enough of a gap between the fixtures to get around any of the logistical problems that prevented him from taking his top team to play the Leicester Tigers.
It is a good thing he went under-strength then too, for a second look at the narrow win over the Sharks from Durban in the last of their three successive big home games before this past weekend’s break confirmed how flat the Cape players looked because of the accumulative effect of such massive back to back games.
Dobson will be hoping the players will respond well to the rest they were afforded in the first week of the year as they report back to work on Monday, and he will also be expecting a few players back from injury.
Perhaps the most significant of those will be the two wings, Ben Loader and Courtnall Skosan, as the injury to outside centre Ruhan Nel should see the outrageously talented Suleiman Hartzenberg move into Nel’s position. Nel is likely to be out for some time after being stretchered from the field with a serious ligament injury towards the end of the first half of the game against the Sharks.
Wandisile Simelane, formerly of the Bulls and Emirates Lions and a Junior Springbok, was of course announced as a new Stormers player during the week the Stormers were on holiday, and he is sure to be a good addition to the group in time, but it would be a surprise if Dobson rushes him into action this quickly as he needs time to bed in.
When you think about it, Dobson does actually have more than one option when looking for a salve to the problem created by Nel’s absence this week - Damian Willemse played outside centre when Nel went off and could easily continue there as Warrick Gelant will be another player back in action when the Stormers train on Monday and can easily start at fullback.
Talking of Gelant, he’s also played quite a bit of his rugby at outside centre, the position he played at school.