Head coach Allister Coetzee has announced a team showing seven changes for the DHL Stormers’ final Vodacom Super Rugby tour match on Saturday – against the Reds in Brisbane (kick-off 10:40 SA Time).
Springbok centre Juan de Jongh has been restored to the starting line-up, following his return from injury via the bench last weekend, whilst WP Under-21 star Jurie van Vuuren will make his first Super Rugby start after being named to partner Michael Rhodes at lock.
Stormers Media Release
Van Vuuren, who came off the bench last week, is a product of the WP Rugby Institute in Stellenbosch and has lifted silverware with the DHL WP Under-19 (2012) and Under-21 (2013) teams in the past two seasons.
His promotion to the starting XV, in the absence of injured lock Ruan Botha, is one of three changes to the DHL Stormers pack that started against the Brumbies in Canberra last Saturday – the others see Deon Fourie start at hooker and Nizaam Carr come in at No 6.
In the backline, meanwhile, the return of De Jongh means a switch back to inside centre for captain Jean de Villiers and Damian de Allende moving back to the wing where he began the 2014 season. Louis Schreuder will come in at scrumhalf, with Nic Groom dropping down to the bench after three starts in a row. Groom also has a slight niggle and did not train fully this week.
In a final backline change, Kobus van Wyk drops out of the matchday 23 altogether after taking a knock to his knee against the Brumbies, with Jaco Taute back on the bench after resting his troublesome AC Joint last weekend.
Taute, in turn, will be joined on the bench by DHL WP Vodacom Cup stars, lock Tazz Fuzani and loose forward Sikhumbuzo Nothse. Both Fuzani and Notshe, who arrived in Brisbane just a day ago, are uncapped at Super Rugby level.
Fuzani, 23, played three Absa Currie Cup matches for DHL Western Province last season, to go with nine appearances at Vodacom Cup level, whilst Notshe – who left school at the end of 2012 – has played 12 Vodacom Cup matches for Province.
Looking ahead to the weekend, coach Coetzee told www.iamastormer.com: “We’d dearly love to finish our tour with a victory in Brisbane.
“We know it won’t be easy, but the guys remain positive and determined to make it count this weekend against a Reds team that will also be desperate to get back to winning ways after two losses in South Africa.”
Stormers: 15 Gio Aplon, 14 Damian de Allende, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (Captain), 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Nizaam Carr, 5 Michael Rhodes, 4 Jurie van Vuuren, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Deon Fourie, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Oliver Kebble, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Tazz Fuzani, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Nic Groom, 22 Demetri Catrakilis, 23 Jaco Taute.
Date: Saturday 29 March
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 10:40 SA Time (19:40 Brisbane Time, 08:40 GMT)
Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Steve Walsh (Australia), Rohan Hoffmann (Australia)
TMO: Steve Leszczynski (Australia)
Still not a bad side… except for the 2 locks and the scrummie!
I feel for van Wyk, he was the only guy injecting some pace and flair, even though he had a shocker i may have persisted with him but at 13!
Sailosi could not do much wrong last week because he was nowhere at all.
@ grootblousmile:
Besides the scrummy and the 2 locks ( Rhodes is not so bad btw ) the worse players in the team are Peter (Popgun) Grant and Deon (Wild thing) Fourie.
The only reason why Schreuder is playing is to cover for Grant’s total inability to kick out of hand either for distance or for tactical reasons.
Fourie is a fair number 6 but cannot do the basics as a hooker namely scrumming and throwing into a line out. Expect the lineouts to be an utter fiasco.
Easy call for those who do superbru—- Reds by 8-15.
3 @ robzim:
Yeah, true… I forgot to say Grant is utter shit…
I will be picking the Reds for a win on Bru.
3 @ robzim:
Must say I am worried about the Stormers loosies too… Nizaam Carr is no opensider, would have played Siya Kolisi at No 6 (openside) and Carr at No 7 (blindside).
PS! Of course only SA sides have the opensider as No 6 and the blindsider as No 7, whereas in Aus, New Zealand and most of the world the opensider is the No 7.
Even then Kolisi is not a true “Fetcher”, so I feel the balance in the Loosies is wrong!
5 @ grootblousmile:
Agree re the balance of the loosies … and the reserve loosie Notshe is also no opensider .
They might have to bring reserve hooker Coetzee on and move deon to opensider if they struggle too much at the breakdowns.
btw.. Notshe is perhaps unknown outside the WP but he is a very good player… sort of in the Kolisi mould but just a bit faster and taller… someone to look out in the future as a 7 or 8.
6 @ robzim:
Yip, Notche might have a bright future… I like what I’ve seen from him so far.
Can’t say that I rate Stephan Coetzee.
Bigggggg injury problems for your side at present, robzim!
2 Hookers (Liebenberg & Ntubeni), 3 locks (Etzebeth, Steenkamp, Carizza), 2 loosies (Schalla & Elstadt) and a prime left wing (Kolbe) injured at present.
Experience just might be the down fall of the Stormers. Besides, Brisbane is not an easy place to win.
I think we are way past talking about the ideal balance of the loose trio. At the moment we are simply trying to get 22 able bodied players on the field.
Given that, I think they’ve done well.
At this stage it will come down to the day and if we can hold it together for 80 minutes.
8 @ dWeePer:
Whilst coaching Super Rugby, Heyneke Meyer had the mantra that you cannot win Super Rugby without 12 Springboks starting in your Super Rugby side (Springboks, not current Springboks, that is)
Stormers have 7 Bokke in their Starting 15 plus one Springbok tourist (Schreuder) who should never have toured with the Bokke… and on the bench they have Taute. So, still not bad as far as Bokke goes, but the problem lies in combinations who play next to one another and how that will translate into the team gelling on the pitch.
@ grootblousmile:
How on earth did the Crusaders win all those titles then?
11 @ kaksioek:
Hahaha
OK, correction… without 12 Internationals (Springboks or All Blacks or Wallabies) in your starting lineup!
OR
That was the qualification for a SA side to win it… rather!
Grant cannot find any distance or field position with his kicking.
Demitri can kick but really offers nothing in the rest of his play.
Both hold us back significantly in terms of play.
The only alternative is to play Kurt Coleman, who does none of these things brilliantly, but both well enough.
We need to get a proper alternative in there.
13 @ Stormersboy:
Kurt Coleman reminds me a lot of Burton Francis… in looks and play.
A bit of a Geronkie (cross between a Giraffe and a Donkey)!
@ dWeePer:
Sometimes experience is overrated. Look at the Lions. Majority of the team have only started playing SR this year. There is something seriously wrong at the Stormers at the moment. A team with 7 internationals should not be languishing 2nd from the bottom of the log, even with combinations out of kilter due to injuries.
@ grootblousmile: Coleman particularly. Both of them can do a job though, if the rest are decent around them.
16 @ Stormersboy:
I still say if Demetri Catrakilis is given proper direction, form a competant backline coach, he is the answer.
One can teach a person to tackle and defend, but one cannot easily improve a person’s ability to strike the ball with more timing on the ball to get greater distance from kicks to touch and to posts… to an extent you are either born with timing or not.
On attack Demetri has the basic ingredients, which could be garnered if correctly applied.
@ grootblousmile:
From what I recall, Demetri’s defence is pretty solid too. But if the Stormers wanted a flyhalf with more attacking flair, surely Swiel was the answer (although he hasn’t been able to demonstrate it in Super Rugby yet, it will likely come). It appears attacking flair wasn’t a priority then.
@ Lion4ever:
True, something serious is wrong… but it must also be remembered that in contrast to the Lions the Stormers only had one home match so far this year and that is the one they won… so they are not totally dead and out (as yet).
Lost my wager on the Stormers last week
Not going to repeat it
@ kaksioek:
In Gary van Aswegen they have a much better all round flyhalf than Swiel and any of those currently on tour . His perfomance in the Stormers/Bulls game last year at Newlands was the best fly half performance by any WP player since the days of…… uhhh… Joel Stransky.
Only problem is he is brittle… but i still have some hope for him, specially if they get a better more attack orientated coach.
Other alternative is to buy Robert du preez who was on loan from the Sharks to Maties for the varsity cup… The Sharks certainly do not need Lambie, Fred, Swiel and du preez.
@ robzim:
@ 19
Don’t see anyone there who can and willing to tackle those Chiefs’ marauders other than Rhodes and Grant?
@ robzim:
I had forgotten about Gary. I guess he has shown more at a higher level than Swiel so far. Is he injured at the moment? I see Perpignan was sniffing around him earlier this year.
@ grootblousmile:
Demitri has zero attacking flair. He stands so deep in the pocket that you may as well have Grant there as Grant stand 20 meters in front of Dimitri, so at the end it’s a zero sum gain.
Just saying.
@ Stormersboy:
At least Demetri can kick penalties from more than 30 metres out – which is pretty important when your so-called “game plan” relies almost entirely on penalties.
Come on boys do it to save the coaching team.
Lose this one and it’s overs cadovers for them.
@ gunther:
if ever there was a case for throwing a match…
the stormers players must be very tempted…
@ kaksioek:
It’s true that Demitri may have made the difference last week.
I had thought that maybe we should even play Dimitri at 15 just for his kicking. Move Gio to 14 or something like that. You know, think out of the box.
We also have Ryno Eksteen, the Bulls player who was the top scorer in Craven week in 2012 and played for the SA schools team of that year touring Europe. He’s come of the bench once and he may make a difference too, he can play 10 or 15.
Grant takes the ball up much better though, and stands much flatter.
We saw some nice midfield breaks from JDV and Damian as a result of that flat pattern of play, which we wouldn’t have had if the Greek was there.
24 @ Stormersboy:
I disagree with you completely regarding Demetri’s attacking abilities.
In fact, it is hogwash!
@ grootblousmile:
Ja because he’s just a try scoring machine?
The guy stands deeper in the pocket than Naas used to.
I call BS on your hogwash.
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