The Springboks will complete their resting protocols this weekend but DHL Stormers coach John Dobson feels he has plenty of options as he prepares to take his team to Durban for Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
Damian Willemse, Manie Libbok and Deon Fourie will all be sitting out the Hollywoodbets Kings Park game, but their absence will be counter-balanced by the return from injury of regular captain Salmaan Moerat and star No 8 Evan Roos. Other players who have recovered from injury in the four week gap since the Stormers beat Stade Francais to advance to the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup are the talented young flyhalf/centre Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and lock Garry Porter.
Frans Malherbe is also back in training and is available to play in Durban but appears unlikely to do so as Dobson looks to time his return to the playing field. Malherbe has not played since he was part of the Springbok front-row in the World Cup final in Paris on 28 October last year, with a lower back complaint keeping him out in the interim.
A possible exciting addition to the Stormers team for the Durban clash could be Wandesile Simelane. The precociously talented centre moved to the Stormers from the Bulls late last year but it was too soon for him to be selected as he needed to assimilate himself into the Stormers’ playing pattern and culture.
“Wandesile has played two friendlies for us (against Varsity Cup opposition) in the past few weeks so he is ready to play for us,” said Dobson.
GAP TO BE FILLED AT OUTSIDE CENTRE
Stalwart Ruhan Nel of course sustained a serious knee ligament injury in the first round URC game against the Sharks in Cape Town on 30 December so there is a hole to be filled at outside centre as Dan du Plessis is likely to shift inside for the absent Damian Willemse, who wore the No 12 in the last game the Stormers played against Stade Francais in the Investec Champions Cup.
Suleiman Hartzenberg can also play outside centre and with all the wings now fit again, he is the likely alternative to Simelane in the No 13 jersey for the Durban trip.
The smart money will be on Feinberg-Mngomezulu slotting in for Libbok at flyhalf and Du Plessis playing inside centre, with Warrick Gelant the obvious selection at fullback in the absence of Willemse. Fourie’s place at openside flank could be taken by Nama Xaba if the Stormers are looking for like for like, but they have used the likes of Willie Engelbrecht and the impressive Marcell Theunissen there in big games in the past. Roos’ return to fitness means that Dobson is going to have to choose between Ben Jason-Dixon and Hacjivah Dayimani at blindside flank.
MOERAT RETURN ADDS DEPTH AT LOCK
The return to fitness of Moerat and Porter adds considerably to the Stormers’ depth in the second row, and it won’t be easy for Dobson to leave out Adre Smith, who has been so impressive in the Stormers’ No 4 jersey since returning from the injury that kept him out for most of last season. It is also true that Hendre Stassen has put in a massive shift whenever he has been called upon to play and was pivotal in swinging the game against Stade Francais the Stormers’ way in Paris.
Dobson told an online press conference on Tuesday that he’d gained a lot out of the friendlies against Stellenbosch and UCT and was expecting the same to be true of next Wednesday’s friendly against Griquas in Saldanha.
“I was a bit concerned that after the Zebre game at the beginning of December, which was when the Springboks came back into the system, we haven’t been able to create much rugby for the rest of the group,” Dobson said.
“A big part of our culture is a sense of inclusion and also athletically and from a strength and conditioning perspective we had to give the guys who have been sitting on the sidelines some rugby. Getting out of the so-called group of death in the Champions Cup plus the importance of the derbies we played in December didn’t give us much room to do that.
“Those games also helped players returning from injury as it means that if they are selected for the Sharks game they won’t be going in cold from a playing perspective,” he added.
Dobson confirmed that the Sharks game will be the only one that the Boks will be unavailable for as the five week resting period asked for by the national management had been taken in two blocks - the three weeks after the World Cup last November and then a five week break that started with the Stade Francais game four weeks ago.
That effectively means that the Stormers’ Boks will all be available for the crucial return derby against Loftus in Pretoria on 2 March and fans can look forward to a top quality game as Bulls coach Jake White will also have his Boks back for that game.