Jantjies move brings Stormers halfbacks into focus

It hasn’t been announced by the DHL Stormers yet but Bayonne’s announcement on Tuesday seems confirmation enough that Herschel Jantjies won’t be continuing with the Cape franchise next season.

The French Top 14 club announced on their social media feeds that Jantjies will be joining them for two seasons.

“The South African halfback will join us next season for two seasons. He will bring his international experience to the club,” the Bayonne release stated.

Scrumhalf is an area where there has been a lot of speculation around the Stormers recently. It was understood that the Stormers were for a while working on getting the Emirate Lions’ Sanele Nohamba, a former Hollywoodbets Sharks player and product of the KZN schooling system, to move to the Cape next season but Nohamba’s asking price was reportedly too high.

It was also rumoured that the other regular Stormers scrumhalf, Paul de Wet, was being sought after by the Bulls. Some expected that move to be made this season, but De Wet had another year left on his contract.

On the other side of the balance sheet, the other player mentioned as a possible acquisition is current Bok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, who has played overseas since leaving the Sharks nearly a decade ago.

Reinach joined Jantjies in playing a supporting role at scrumhalf for first choice Faf de Klerk at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, and scored a hattrick of tries in one of the pool matches.

Jantjies had burst onto the scene with a brilliant performance against Australia at the start of that World Cup year, scoring two tries in a comfortable win before scoring the try that enabled the Boks to draw with the All Blacks in Wellington two weeks later.

He arguably didn’t really kick on from there though, and was considered fortunate to retain his place in the match day squad ahead of Reinach for the big games at that World Cup.

That season, 2019, was his breakthrough season at all levels, and he was selected off his good performances for Robbie Fleck’s Stormers team in that year’s Super Rugby.

The 28-year-old has never quite regained that form, and the last of his 25 appearances for the Boks was in August last year and he was not selected for the World Cup in France.

The player in his position who is expected to come through at the Stormers and is considered to have a particularly bright future is young Imad Khan, a 20-year-old product of Bishops who has impressed for the Junior Springboks and has already played Currie Cup rugby for Western Province.

The uncertainty around the scrumhalf position outside of Khan’s huge potential at the Stormers is in stark contrast to the wealth of riches the franchise has at flyhalf.

They have three players on their books who have worn the Bok No 10 jersey in Manie Libbok, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse, while Jurie Matthee has produced some impressive performances in that position at both Super Rugby and Currie Cup level.