Mike Greenaway
To add injury to insult, the Stormers lost key players in their dramatic defeat to the Sharks in Durban and must host Toulon on Saturday in Gqeberha without Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Dan du Plessis.
The backline pair was injured in the United Rugby Championship (URC) match in Durban, which saw the Sharks engineer a post-hooter great escape and they will be missed when the focus shifts now to the Challenge Cup.
In a sense, the news is good for Springbok fans in that it is a concussion that will prevent Feinberg Mngomezulu from running the show at the Nelson Mandela Stadium. When he left the field at the Shark Tank, there was a worry that the leg injury that had removed him from the Boks’ end-of-year tour was more serious than originally thought.
Experienced captain Du Plessis is out of the Toulon game because of a leg knock. Manie Libbok is an easy fix for the loss of Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and Jurie Matthee will provide cover from the bench, but the loss of Du Plessis is more complicated.
Yesterday, Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani said the staff are looking at options in Suleiman Hartzenberg, Jean-Luc du Plessis and Wandisile Simelane while talking up rising star Jonathan Roche.
“A big concern is Du Plessis. He limped off towards the end of the Sharks game and we’re waiting on feedback. He’s doubtful,” Hlungwani told reporters. “Sacha suffered a concussion and is out.
“At centre, we’re sitting with Ruhan Nel, who covers outside centre, Suleiman, Du Plessis is around, Simelane is around while Johnny Roche was pretty good in the Currie Cup.
“Josh Boulle is South Africa Under-21 and pretty decent. Maybe this will be a nice time to allow an opportunity to a youngster who has shown potential.”
It is a busy month for a Stormers side that travels to London next week to play Harlequins before the back-to-back derbies against the Lions and Sharks in Cape Town. Hlungwani had good news on the progress of Springboks Salmaan Moerat, Frans Malherbe and Deon Fourie, as well as Englishman Ben Loader.
“Ben is still injured but close to coming back,” he said. “Brannas (Fourie) is probably back for the Lions game. Salmaan has been training for the past week or two, he’s probably ready from next week onwards.
“We’ll have a friendly this week against Griquas. We like to get a game in between URC games for those with long-term injuries to sort of integrate them back in. That’s one game we’ll look at re-integrating some guys, and we might play another one in January.
“Frans is training. Sti (Sithole) is back early next year but he is on the field and doing rehab.”
“The injuries are uncontrollable. But I’ve mentioned a couple of centres who are coming through the system, and it’s our job to prepare the next group of players,” Hlungwani added. “It is a test for us and pushes us to be better.”
