Siya out for six to eight weeks because of 'mean spirited' Hurricanes

A visit to a specialist has confirmed that DHL Stormers captain Siya Kolisi will miss a minimum of the next six to eight weeks of Vodacom Super Rugby due to the injury picked up in what coach John Dobson has described as a “mean spirited” opening game against the Hurricanes.

“Siya is out for six to eight weeks as the best case scenario,” said Dobson on Tuesday.

“He has made a visit to the specialist and has been diagnosed with a Grade 3 MCL tear. Siya is not happy with the way the injury came about. To be honest that was a very mean-spirited game that wasn’t good for rugby or for the tournament. It had nothing to do with the referee, we thought Jaco Peyper had an excellent game.

“But the more we watch the video of the game the more we see the subtle stuff that was happening and we have spoken to Lyndon Bray of World Rugby about it. Although as I say it had nothing to do with the refereeing. Apart from Siya we saw that Pieter-Steph du Toit also got a very tough time. There were lots of cheap shots from the Hurricanes. The player has apologised to Siya but Siya is still not happy.”

With the Stormers featuring several high profile Springboks who won the World Cup it was suggested to Dobson that his team might have to anticipate being targeted going forward, but the coach said he hoped not, and it was to try and prevent it from becoming part of “the discourse” that he’d taken the matter up with Bray.

“I hope it doesn’t become a trend,” he said.

As reported on Monday the outlook of injured hooker Bongi Mbonambi is better than the outlook for Kolisi.

“Bongi won’t play this week against the Bulls and it is still quite vague, but we are expecting him to be out for between two and six weeks. He had a two and a half centimetre hamstring tear,” said Dobson.

“Herschelle Jantjies is a bit sore from being knocked in the throat area but will play, and Jaco Coetzee, who was the guy we were most worried about because of how well he played against the Hurricanes before he went off, will definitely play. That’s good news for us.

“In terms of players coming back, Cobus Wiese and Juarno Augustus will both be available this week and we will use them because they are both big boys and will be needed against the Bulls. JD Schickerling is still a week away from returning.”

Although Augustus will play and will be at No 8 when he does, his absence from the playing field means he will have to play off the bench against the Bulls. That means that Dobson is searching for a new No 8 to replace Kolisi.

“We could move Jaco back there from No 6 and play Ernst van Rhyn on the openside but we were also very impressed with what Johan du Toit did on Saturday,” said the coach.

“Trokkie (Augustus) will definitely come on at No 8 later in the game and will have an important role to play.”

The Stormers team for the Bulls game will be announced on Thursday.