The DHL Stormers’ new recruit from England, Ben Loader, will miss Saturday night’s big Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby against the Vodacom Bulls but the home team is confident they have a more than capable replacement.
Loader, who first caught the Stormers’ eye when he played against them for the now defunct English club London Irish in the Champions Cup last season, popped an AC joint in scoring the first Stormers try in their exciting 21-20 win over European champions La Rochelle last weekend. He was in excellent form against the French team, as indeed he was against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road the previous week, which was why he was the only player to start in both Champions Cup games.
Stormers backline and attack coach Dawie Snyman said he is sorry to have lost Loader for the Bulls game, but indicated that there was adequate backup even though Angelo Davids is only just coming back from injury, with the former Blitzbok having played well against the Bulls in the past.
“I think Angelo is fit, but we do have Courtnall Skosan who can slot in, as well as Suleiman Hartzenberg, who can play wing,” said Snyman.
“It is unfortunate to be losing Ben after he played two great games for us but Suleiman is an exciting player who has done well against the Bulls (in the corresponding Christmas derby from last season). There are no other players returning from injury.”
PRODIGIOUS PROSPECT
The 20-year-old Bishops old boy is indeed a prodigious prospect, be it at centre or on the wing, and Stormers coach John Dobson won’t shy away from the opportunity to back him against another young player who was schooled in the Cape, Springbok Canan Moodie, or for that matter another Cape produced Bok, Kurt-lee Arendse.
Hartzenberg was out for the first part of this season after being injured in a Currie Cup game shortly before the Stormers went into the play-off stage of last year’s URC but made an immediate impact when he returned in the game against Zebre in Stellenbosch a few weeks ago. He played outside centre in the opening Champions Cup game against Leicester, and was one of several players who shone in what was an impressive effort from a mainly second string side. It was at outside centre that Hartzenberg, who Dobson reckons is a definite future Springbok, did well against the Bulls in Cape Town last Christmas but he is just as much at home on the wing.
It will be interesting to see if any of the other players who did well at Welford Road but did not feature against La Rochelle will play against the Bulls. Manie Libbok is the obvious starting flyhalf but Jurie Matthee, who was outstanding on his Stormers debut at a difficult venue against difficult opponents, could certainly merit a place in the match day 23.
DE WET ALSO PRESSING tO START
Another player pressing for a starting spot is scrumhalf Paul de Wet, who was also brilliant against the Tigers and combined well with Matthee. It was De Wet who scored the winning try when the Stormers broke a long drought against the Bulls at Loftus two seasons ago.
“I wouldn’t say I think about that every time I play the Bulls but it was a big moment in my rugby career,” says De Wet.
“Unfortunately not a lot of people back home got to see that try because the television feed broke down and the last minutes of that game were not shown.”
De Wet has played in most of the other five URC games that followed on from that victory, and he’s scored some more important tries against the Pretoria side, who he acknowledges have changed their game significantly and will be a tougher challenge now.
“They will come with their usual physical game, and we are expecting that, but the Bulls are also playing some really nice running rugby since Willie le Roux has joined them and they do pose a different challenge to what they did before,” said the scrumhalf, who enjoyed his first feel of the new hybrid surface at DHL Stadium in last week’s game against La Rochelle.
“The field was really cool. It was nice to be playing at Greenpoint with plastics,” said the pacy halfback who, like the Sharks Springbok Grant Williams, has enough speed in him to also be used on the wing if needed.
The Stormers team for the match will be announced on Friday.