The road to the next Rugby World Cup and the path to establishing the pecking order of the Springbok flyhalves could be set to make a significant turn at Hollywoodbets Kings Park this weekend.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks will be hosting the DHL Stormers in their first Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture after the international break and with so many frontline Boks in the opposition ranks, the Stormers will be heading to Durban as underdogs even though the Sharks have never beaten them in the URC and haven’t won a big coastal derby since early 2021.
The presence of the Sharks Boks, if the home coach John Plumtree selects them, will present individual opportunities to Stormers players like Suleiman Hartzenberg, who has yet to make it into the Bok squad, as well as to those who have cracked it and may feel they have a point to prove.
With Jordan Hendrikse now playing for the Sharks and having entered the flyhalf conversation at the Boks after his good performance against Wales in his second international game at the weekend, there could well be three of the five Bok pivots on show in the Durban game. There might have been four were it not for the injury to Damian Willemse that will keep him out of rugby for the rest of the year.
You can’t have four flyhalves all playing that position though, so the utility value of these players could make for some interesting selections at URC level going forward, starting with this week’s match.
SACHA IS FIT AND READY
Stormers assistant coach Dawie Snyman confirmed on Monday that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who made such an impression in his early games for the Boks that he was one of the nominees for the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year Award, will be fit to play on Saturday.
“Sacha has been doing well in training and he will be available for selection this week,” said Snyman.
Manie Libbok, who wore the Bok No 10 jersey against England and played a role in the 29-20 win at Twickenham with his sublime cross kicks that directly set up Cheslin Kolbe’s first try and played a role in another, is also likely to be available for the Stormers on Saturday.
“Manie is only arriving back in South Africa this afternoon but we will speak to him and see where he is at before we train tomorrow (Tuesday). He could also be available to play on Saturday.”
If Libbok is ready to play, and he only played 45 minutes on the November tour so there is no reason he shouldn’t be, it sets up the intriguing prospect of Libbok and Feinberg-Mngomezulu playing together in the Stormers’ key decision-making 10/12 axis.
They have of course played together there before, but it was before Feinberg-Mngomezulu had made his Bok debut and done so well as a pivot.
NOT TIED TO PLAYING 10
There have been rumours that a request has been made for Feinberg-Mngomezulu to play exclusively at flyhalf but Snyman denied that was the case.
“There has been no request like that and it is great for us to have someone like Sacha who can be so good in several different positions,” said the Stormers attack coach.
Indeed, Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who can also play fullback and did so for much of the second test against Ireland the last time he was in Durban, has played most of his games for the Stormers in the midfield, and has done well there. In fact, he was the man of the match when he wore the Stormers No 12 jersey against the Sharks the last time they were in Durban for a URC game in February.
On that occasion it was Jurie Matthee, another good pivot on the Stormers books, who wore the No 10, and together the pair of them bamboozled the Sharks. Libbok can of course also play fullback, but with Warrick Gelant on his books, head coach John Dobson won’t see the need to make that switch.
WILLEMSE OUT FOR 12 WEEKS
If Willemse was in the mix, it would make the selection of the Stormers backline even more interesting, but Snyman confirmed that the groin injury that Willemse pulled up with in the last Stormers game against the Glasgow Warriors in Stellenbosch will keep him out for some time.
“Damian was ruled out for 12 weeks so it will be a while before he plays for us again. We have had five weeks of his period out, so there are seven to go,” he said.
It appears that apart from loosehead prop Ali Vermaak, Feinberg-Mngomezulu will be the only player who has been on the Stormers injured list that will be ready to play against the Sharks.
“Salmaan (Moerat) isn’t back yet, he might be back the following week (against Toulon in the Champions Cup), Frans (Malherbe) is also out for another week. Evan (Roos) is due back at the end of December, and we are expecting Deon (Fourie) back in a few weeks. BJ Dixon was also injured against Glasgow and he won’t be back this week either.”
So the Stormers will be far from full strength when they head to Durban for what is a must-win game for them but they might appreciate being cast with the mantle of underdogs, thus reprising the role they enjoyed so much when they unexpectedly won the URC in the competition’s inaugurl season.
“We are playing against a team with top players in it and for a guy like Suleiman (Hartzenberg) it is a great opportunity for them to measure themselves against the likes of Makazole Mapimpi.”
The Stormers team will be announced later in the week.