The DHL Stormers team announced on Friday for Saturday’s clutch Vodacom URC game against Glasgow in Cape Town did not have Deon Fourie in the match-day 23 - but it turns out that he was in the team initially announced to the players earlier in the week.
‘Brannas’, as he is known to his teammates, was selected to fill the dual role of hooker and loose-forward back-up as director of rugby John Dobson has gone for a more traditional five/three split between forwards and backs on the bench rather than the bomb squad six/two split he has gone with for much of the season.
“I suppose we can make this public as it doesn’t reflect badly on anyone,” said Dobson in a pre-match press conference at the DHL Stadium on Friday.
“With JJ Kotze having recently come off a neck injury, which wasn’t ideal, we went for Deon to cover hooker in this game as well as looseforward, thus giving us the best of both worlds in the sense we could use him at flank if we needed him there. As you know, Deon is one of those players who always wants to play. He wants to play every second of every game, so it says a lot about him that he came to me on Thursday and said he was uncomfortable from the team viewpoint playing hooker in this particular game.
“We are expecting a big setpiece battle against Edinburgh and he just felt that while he has been working on his lineout throwing, he just doesn’t feel it is where it should be to not potentially compromise the team in an important game like the one we are playing in tomorrow (Saturday). So he asked to be stood down. It was very big of him to put the team first like that.”
PLAYED HOOKER MOST OF WORLD CUP FINAL
Fourie ended up playing most of the last World Cup final for the Springboks at hooker after Bongi Mbonambi was injured early in the game, but although he was selected as hooker backup against Toulon in the Champions Cup a few weeks ago, he did not get to play there in the game. So as Dobson says, kudos to him for acknowledging that he’s not quite ready yet to reprise for the Stormers the role he filled for his country in Paris in 2023.
Fourie started at openside flank against Connacht last week, but with Paul de Villiers selected back into the No 6 jersey, there is no place for him in the 23 against Glasgow. The Stormers have two loose-forwards on the bench and no lock cover for the starting players Adre Smith and Ruben van Heerden, with Keke Morabe making his return to the Stormers match day squad for the first time since he suffered a serious leg injury against Toulon in an Investec Champions Cup game in Gqeberha in December 2024.
“We feel that Keke is a must for his game because of his (maul) stopping ability,” explained Dobson.
SCHICKERLING INJURY A HUGE BLOW
Marcel Theunissen, because of his excellent lineout calling, is the other loose-forward reserve, with Ben-Jason Dixon clearly the man who will move to the second row if there is an injury to Smith or Van Heerden. Dobson won’t want that to happen as he is very thin at lock at present.
“Having four quality locks was something we viewed as a strength earlier in the year and it shaped our game model, with wins against Munster and Bayonne away driven by us bringing on players like Adre and JD Schickerling in the second half,” said the Stormers coach.
“But we have lost JD to injury now and that is a huge blow to us. With Salmaan (Moerat) leaving at the end of the season we are under pressure now to bring through Connor Evans as quickly as possible, and we do have a lot of confidence in him. However, we feel he will be better off ahead of the overseas tour for the matches against Ulster and Cardiff to get in a proper full game rather than 20 minutes or so playing for our under-23 side on Saturday.”
MARKUS WAS INITIALLY GOING TO DEBUT OVER A MONTH AGO
Dobson added that selecting the 18-year-old former schoolboy sensation Markus Muller was initially planned for the Dragons game that was played on 22 March, but he was part of a South Africa under-20 camp at that point and the plan had to be shelved.
“We wanted Markus to play for us before the end of the season, and we did want to blood him against the Dragons, but that was ruled out by the under-20 camp. We feel it is important to show that if you come through you will be given an opportunity. We have Jonny Roche coming back from injury shortly, but we want Markus to end the season having been capped by the Stormers.
“I have chosen a five/three bench split this week partially to protect him. But he is a special player, and all the remaining games are must-wins for us. We just didn’t want Markus to get through the season without getting some senior rugby experience. He is a special player.”
Dobson doesn’t go along with the negativity around Damian Willemse playing wing in the last three games and pointed out that the Stormers winning the contestable kicking contest in all those games justified the decision, but said Willemse’s return to fullback this week is because that is where he is most likely to play for the Boks.
“If you look at the technical things, he did well. For instance, last week he had more carries than (inside centre) Dan du Plessis and our contestable game was perfect. As you know, wing and fullback are interchangeable. The contestable plan worked against Edinburgh and Toulon and also last week, even though we lost that game (to Connacht).”