Assuming DHL Stormers coach John Dobson sticks to his pledge not to “bounce back” the leadership to his ace flyhalf and game driver Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, the return from injury of players who have led the team in the past has led him with no shortage of captaincy options.
Prop Neethling Fouche was on media duty alongside Dobson on Monday so he looks ready to play in Saturday’s north/south Vodacom URC derby at Loftus, a fixture he says the Stormers live to play and feel privileged to be part of. He missed the defeat to the Lions in Johannesburg last time out, and has been a Stormers captain.
Not that Dobson is likely to go that route for the clash with the Bulls, with outside centre Ruhan Nel the favourite to lead the side provided that he is selected this time.
We understood before the trip to Ellis Park that he was back in training but didn’t play, although being in training and in the selection mix are quite semantically far apart and Dobson did specifically say he was up for selection this time.
Nel led the Stormers to their early successes in the competition this year before what eventually became a long term injury ruled him out, meaning he has missed the blip in the campaign that has seen the Stormers drop three successive URC derbies and lose four of their last five games.
So has Deon Fourie, the veteran Springbok who has been a talismanic leader in the past and someone who the other players will run through walls for if he asked them to do so.
The difference between Nel and Fourie, with the latter also definitely in the selection mix this week, is the roles they are likely to play at Loftus.
Fourie has been out of rugby for much longer than Nel, and it would be a big call to start him against the Bulls if you consider that Paul de Villiers has been in such great form in the No 6 jersey.
The cards stack up quite differently at outside centre than they do at openside flank, for while Wandisile Simelane has done well there, Nel’s defensive organisational abilities and influence in that channel have been sorely missed in a team that led the competition’s defensive stats up to the end of December but have become decidedly porous since then.
Nel hasn’t been the only experienced player missing from the midfield, with another midfielder with captaincy experience, Dan du Plessis, coming back into the selection mix this week after being in the “he’s returned to training” bracket before the Ellis Park game.
SELECTION QUANDARY
Jonathan Roche has done well at No 12 and is one for the future, but Du Plessis and Nel are a longstanding partnership.
It would be a risk though to throw too many players straight back into the starting team, particularly for what is likely to be a typically intense north/south derby, and Dobson knows that.
Which means he has a bit of a selection quandary to face before finalising his team, with Seabelo Senatla, the first choice wing who has been missed for his strike ability out wide, also possibly ready to play again this week.
“It’s great to have those guys available again, but you’ve got to manage it properly,” Dobson agreed. “Loftus is not the easiest place to throw someone straight back into action after a long injury.”
Indeed, which probably means that Nel, who is the man most needed right now both from a captaincy viewpoint and for what he brings as a player, will be the only returnee to start against the Bulls, with the rest of them lined up for possible roles when the Dragons and Edinburgh come to Cape Town over the next two weeks to slightly relieve the pressure that packs into the derby phase.
Should Nel not be risked to start, then JD Schickerling, who led the team against the Lions and did so adequately in Dobson’s view despite the 24-10 defeat, will wear the captaincy armband again, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu being released from the burden of being the official team leader but also very much a leadership figure within the group.