Alistair Coetzee announced the Stormers team to take on the Highlanders this Saturday at Newlands. I attended the training session.
The team shows captain Schalk Burger returning at No 6 and an interesting choice is Anton van Zyl starting at No 4. Coetzee in the past said that he sees Van Zyl primarily as a No 5 lock, but explained that he is happy that Van Zyl consists of enough skills to cover both.
Wicus Blaauw also makes a welcome return at tighthead prop. Ricky Januarie moves to the bench with Dewalt Duvenhage getting the nod at No 9.
Gio Aplon sat out for the training session and Coetzee said he would wait until later the week before making a decition on a possible replacement for Aplon.
Mark Lauwrence will be the referee for the game and Schalk Burger said that he is pleased with the interpretation of the brake down law by Lawrence.
The Full Squad is:
1 Wicus Blaauw
2 Tiaan Liebenberg
3 Brok Harris
4 Anton van Zyl
5 Andries Bekker
6 Schalk Burger (C)
7 Francois Louw
8 Duane Vermeulen
9 Dewalt Duvenhage
10 Peter Grant
11 Bryan Habana
12 Juan de Jongh
13 Jaque Fourie
14 Gio Aplon
15 Joe Petersen
16 Deon Fourie
17 JC Kritzinger
18 De Kock Steenkamp
19 Pieter Louw
20 Ricky Januarie
21 Lionel Cronje
22 Sireli Naqelevuki
The game starts at 17:05 with the Vodacom teams of the WP and Sharks playing the curtain raiser at 14h45.
SA U/20 will take on Argentina U/20 at 13h00
Anton van Zyl and Andries Bekker is a bloody good combination at lock, clearly the 2nd best Lock pairing after Bakkies Botha (or Flip van der Merwe) and Victor Matfield.
The Stormers Loosies are a well balanced unit, the front row solid and sorted out by Mathew Proudfoot.
So all in all, the Stormers have a potent forwards pack, who will not stand back for any other pack in the Super 14….. funny saying this, because in the past it was always the Stormers / WP forwards that we had question marks over.
The halfback pairing worries me though… Duvenhage and Grant are both average, I would have gone for Januarie and De Waal, with Lionel Cronje on the bench for De Waal. I just feel it is time that the Stormers employ a halfback pairing who can dominate the battle for territory and tactical nous.
The rest of the backline choose themselves, no problem.
My grandma kicks the ball further than Grant and she is wheelchair bound.
Oh, VRYSTAAAT and Bulls!
Of the point, but interesting…
Altitude at Vodacom Park is 1351 m
at Loftus it’s 1330 m….
Shouldn’t altitude play the same roll in the Cheetahs home games then?
The Lions at more than 1700 m !!!
I would have gone with Duvenhage at 9 aswell…
#2
Loosehead
😆
So true, but the same can be said of N.Olivier…
4@ Blouste – How can Loftus be 370m lower than the Coke Blikkie….. surely there is a discrepancy, otherwise one would be able to free-wheel from Pretoria to JHB or ride uphill all the time from JHB to Pretoorsdorp.
I see SuperBru says that the Coke Blikkie is at 1763m above sea level… and Loftus only at 1330m… fark, that’s a difference of 433m….
Cannot be man… fark, the 2 places are less than 50km apart…
6@gbs
Thats where I saw it aswell, even Vodacom Park is higher than Loftus…
Hence my question…
Aparently it is…
7@ Blouste – So, Pretoria is ‘n gat in die grond… hehehhehehehe…. flok, gee ek nou skietgoed vir die pikkies & moepels van die ander Provinsies om ons mee te kasty.
9@gbs
Wel hulle het nog altyd die woord “gat” met Pretoria/Loftus geidentifiseer…dit is immers waar hulle gewoonlik hul GAT sien… 😆
I was once told that attitude determines altitude. Never could make sense out of that one either….
6 – GBS and Blouste, Loftus and Ellis Park there is a small difference, that Ellis Park is 433m higher than Loftus. There is such a small difference, it really does not matter that difference at altitude.
Blouste to answer your question why it helps the Bulls is simple. Bulls have the better players and that is it. The Lions and Cheethas have the Altitude on their side too but with out the players the Bulls have it wont help that much.
12
Puma
Now that makes sense… 😆
13 – Blouste, Yip that is the difference mate. 😉
I heard the Hurricanes are only arriving in SA quite late…any truth in that?
This weekends games seems straight forward, which game will be the suprize… 😕
GBS and Blouste,
Now that you guys mention it, I know of many “gatkruipers” who achieved lofty heights there in our beloved old administrative capitol, so maybe there is a link between gat and altitude.
Look, its not my culture, but I can understand it….
10@ Blouste – Kyk, Pretoria is mos in ‘n natuurlike lang “Moot” tussen die Magaliesberge (Noord) en die koppe daar rondom Fort Klapperkop en die Voortrekkermonument (Suid), so dit verklaar seker ‘n deel van die hoogteverskil… en natuurlik wat lekker daarmee gepaardgaan is die feit dat Pretoria daarom so windloos is en bekendstaan as die windlose stad in SA.
Ek is net verbaas oor die groot hoeveelheid meters betrokke, sou gedink het Pretoorsdorp is op die meeste 100m tot 150m laer as Sodom en Gemorra.
15 – Blouste also read in the New Zealand Herald that Canes will be without 3 of their top players. So you never know the Cheetahs could win this one. Though the players that are sitting this one out will be back for the Stormers game the following week.
It only really works well to arrive late for a game if you have trained up at altitude as you carry the benefit of training at altitude for about a week and a bit before you lose it.
However if you have trained at sea level like the Canes do it would have benifited them better to have arrived earlier.
Think when Bulls went arrived late last year for their first game in NZ was to still have the altitude benefit. Also the Boks done that cause they trained up in Pretoria before leaving for their tour of NZ that time. Does not help the otherway round if you have trained at sea level. Canes should have been on the first flight here after their last game.
Nouja, nou wag ons gatbewoners maar vir die bergbobbejane (Tafelberg-besoedelde fokkers), piesangskilglyers (flokken Natallers), gatgrawers (Joburgers & Kimberliete), plat-aarde genootskap (Vrystaaters)…. om ons ou Stad aan te val… hehehehe
Kyk Jo’burg het ook baie “up’s and downs” ( in meer manier as een 😆 ) so dit verklaar ook seker baie…
18 – What I was trying to say there is Canes will struggle more now with the Altitude by coming late.
I know a lot of teams go train in CT or Durbs before playing at Loftus or Ellis Park and arrive late. It never works really. They should rather arrive early.
Tahs arrived late too they played well but were out of gas in the last 15min. Even if they got that late try that got them to 38 points. Bulls had plenty gas left if the game had to go another 10min Bulls would have won by 20 or more.
ALTITUDE IS A BUGGER :LOL:
Puma
Yes, I’m thinking hard about that Cheetah game, the changes in the team are good aswell I feel.
Just don’t know if they’ll pitch…
GBS,
According to Valiant Swart, Jhb and Pta are Sodom en Gemorra. Check out the song of the same title on his brilliant “Deur die Donkervallei” album. Some great songs on there particularly “Banneling”.
22 – Blouste, I put my picks in early this week. Then looked at the NZ papers and saw 3 top Canes players out for this game against Cheethas. So just may have gone with the Cheetahs this week by 3. Too late my picks are in.
Yes, Cheethas are like the French you never know which team turns up. I would love for Cheetahs to beat the Canes.
23@ Kitaartjie – I will definately check it out, I quite like Valiant’s songs and style… he is a cool dude.
By the way, my Little Boet (die Laatlammetjie oorstoot-drie-in-beseringstyd) was quite a drummer in his day and has played for and with Valiant and a few of the Alternative Afrikaans okes….
24
If memory serves you know how to get your picks changed … 😉
Puma and Blouste,
I’ve heard that the Canes are arriving in their own chartered jet. It not that they’re arriving late, its just that they’ve been criss-crossing the country at at 30 000ft trying to spot Bloem from the air.
Seems even Google Earth has its limitations.. 😉
24@ Puma – Canes wil beat the Cheetahs…. because the Cheetahs always seem to have “I’m caught in the Head Lights syndrome” when they play those farkers from Anzac…
… and I really rate the Canes as possible title contenders for the year…. if and when they click, you only see spanners flying….
26 – Blouste, Will just leave it…hehe
27 – Fender 😆
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