The DHL Stormers have been the South African side to be hit with the most pre-season injuries of all 5 Super Rugby Franchises. It has left them lean at lock and in the backline at wing and fullback.
Jaco Taute is rported to be out for 2 more weeks,as a result of which the Stormers have had to scramble to sign more depth, which now comes in the form of signing Shakes Soyizwapi from the EP Kings.
In addition, speculation is rife around what the constitution of the back three will be to run out against the Lions in Super Rugby on the weekend and the likelyhood is that Allister Coetzee would entrust a midfield spot next to Jean de Villiers to Michael van der Spuy.
Jaco Taute:
Rugby365 reports that Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has played down suggestions that fullback Jaco Taute could be set for a lengthy stay on the sidelines.
Speaking at a media briefing at the team’s base in Bellville on Monday, Coetzee admitted that a knee injury will continue to sideline Taute and rule him out when his team faces the Lions in a Super Rugby Round Two match in Johannesburg on Saturday.
However, describing it as “irritation and stiffness”, the Stormers’ mentor said he should be back in about a fortnight.
This follows reports that Taute may be sidelined for a very long time with the knee injury, which flared up after a 30-minute run in a pre-season outing and have again caused him discomfort after a training run on Monday.
While Coetzee was adamant that there is nothing sinister at play, this website has been reliably told that there are fears Taute may never play again.
As it is the Stormers called up young Kings star Siviwe Soyizwapi as a loan player for the rest of the season, which seems to indicate there is more to it than meets the eye.
“We should understand that Jaco [Taute] is coming back from a massive [knee] injury and our whole mindset is to treat it as conservatively as possible,” Coetzee said of the player who has been sidelined since he underwent surgery to repair the damaged of a horror knee injury suffered against the Cheetahs in April last year.
“He would have played [against Boland cavaliers last] Saturday, to get some game time, but the knee played up a bit,” the coach said, adding: “He had a team session this [Monday] morning and now he is sitting outside recovering.
“I think that will be the case for the next couple of weeks – it will be another two weeks till Jaco can play, possibly, a 40 or 60 minute game.”
Coetzee said it was no more than irritation and stiffness that is causing a delay in the fullback’s return.
“It gets stiff after a [training] session,” he said, adding: “It comes with the workload, obviously. A knee that was almost completely reconstructed, after eight months it can’t just be all good and ready to go. It comes with the workload, how much he can manage and how he feels after the [work]load.
“Some players would probably have responded differently, but there’s still swelling after a hard training session and until that is [not] the case we won’t look at him.”
Coetzee said Taute’s conditioning was good, but they can’t afford to play around with a knee problem.
Despite the delay in Taute’s return, Coetzee is happy with the depth he has to cover the back three positions.
“Gio [Aplon] covers at fullback,” the coach said, adding: “We also have Shakes [Siviwe Soyizwapi] from the [Southern] Kings and we have Scott van Breda, Kobus van Wyk and we have Damian [de Allende], with Michael [van der Spuy] at centre.
“We have lots of options to play with – we will never [end up having to] play with 14 men,” Coetzee quipped.
The Stormers mentor said his Kings import Soyizwapi, is similar to Cheslin Kolbe.
“The guy has good feet, he’s a great stepper, can play at fullback and wing. We mustn’t forget that Shakes played for the Kings against the Brumbies in Canberra last year – so he has a bit of [Super Rugby] experience as well.”
He said they have other options as well.
“Devon [Williams] was brilliant at [against the Boland Cavaliers] the weekend and scored a brilliant try. We all talk about getting a wing from outside [of the Stormers franchise], but I am looking at what we have locally.
“If those players don’t come through, then you look to go [look overseas], but it is not always the right thing to do. I am pleased with what we have and also gives us time for Cheslin Kolbe and Juan de Jongh to recover.”
“At this stage it looks like Cheslin will be back in mid-March and Juan perhaps a week later, when we are on tour.”
There are other injury setbacks in the squad.
Lock Jean Kleyn suffered torn ankle ligaments in a warm-up game against Boland over the weekend.
“Kleyn’s injury will require at least six weeks healing and that is another blow to our lock reserves,” said Coetzee.
“[Another lock] Ruan Botha has a stiffness in the groin area after the Boland game and we’ll wait and see when he’s ready to go.
“The good news is that [lock De Kock] Steenkamp will join training as from [next] Monday. His rehab has gone really well and he may be in the running for a place on the bench against the Hurricanes [in as fortnight].”
Coetzee said he was very happy with the way loose forwards Rynhardt Elstadt and Michael Rhodes had been training at lock, but it remained an area of concern.
Shakes Soyizwapi signing:
Rugby365 also reports that the Stormers have signed another Southern Kings player on a loan deal for the Super Rugby season.
Siviwe Soyizwapi has joined Kings utility Scott van Breda at the Cape Town-based franchise – a move that comes in the wake of the loss of injured fullback Jaco Taute.
The decision to call up Soyizwapi, affectionately known as Shakes, follows reports that Taute may be sidelined for a very long time with a knee injury that flared up after a 30-minute run in a pre-season outing.
The official line from the Stormers camp is that there is just ‘slight swelling’ to the tissues surrounding the knee, but this website has been reliably told that there are fears Taute may never play again.
While the Stormers said Taute need only rest for a week or so, the decision to call up the young Kings star seem to indicate there is more to it than just ‘slight swelling’.
Kings boss Charl Crous confirmed Soyizwapi has been called up to the Stormers squad – where he will join Van Breda, who has been in Cape Town since he joined them on a pre-season trial.
Van Breda, like Soyizwapi, can play fullback and wing.
“Shakes left for Cape Town on Sunday [February 16] and will be joining the Stormers to provide cover for them at wing and fullback,” the Eastern Province Rugby Union CEO, Crous, said in a statement.
Soyizwapi played for the Border Bulldogs at the Under-18 Academy Week in 2010, earning a call-up to the South African Under-18 High Performance team, before joining the Eastern Province Kings Academy.
He played for the EP Kings at Under-21 level in 2012 and 2013, finishing the latter competition as the top try scorer. He made his first class debut in the 2012 Currie Cup promotion/relegation series against the Free State Cheetahs.
Three appearances followed in the 2013 Vodacom Cup (scoring one try), as well as five appearances in the 2013 First Division competition – (where he scored three tries) before reverting to the U21 side for the remainder of the season.
Soyizwapi also played for the Southern Kings last year, filling in for the injured Hadleigh Parkes, making his Super Rugby debut in the 28–28 draw against the Brumbies in Canberra.
In October last year, Soyizwapi was called into an South African Sevens training squad, prior to the 2013 Dubai tournament.
Crous said he had received the request to loan Soyizwapi to the Stormers for their Super Rugby season, following the youngster’s sterling performance against the Cape Town based Super Rugby side during their warm-up match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on February 7.
“We wish Shakes everything of the best and know that he will be a great asset to the Stormers,” he said.
Crous said that Soyizwapi’s call up showed, once again, that the Eastern Province was producing top quality talent and that EP Rugby was committed to their promise of identifying opportunities for their talented players to get Super Rugby experience ahead of the team’s re-inclusion into the competition in 2016.
Michael van der Spuy:
SuperSport reports that Michael van der Spuy could be the surprise selection to partner Jean de Villiers in the DHL Stormers midfield in Saturday’s opening Vodacom Super Rugby clash of the season with the Lions in Johannesburg.
Highly rated when in the junior ranks, Van der Spuy was injured for part of last year but did play a few games in the Western Province jersey in the Currie Cup. If called into the Stormers starting team for Ellis Park, it will be to enable Damian de Allende to move to wing, where a gap has been created through Gio Aplon’s switch to fullback for the injured Jaco Taute.
“This week we have a need at wing so it would make sense for us to consider Damian for wing,” said Stormers coach Allister Coetzee on Monday.
“It’s about coming up with the best possible combination at the back. We have to have the best seven backline players on the field because the Lions are a good sign. You don’t win away in this competition, like the Lions did against the Cheetahs, if you are not a quality side.
“That result showed again that in this competition any team can beat any other team. Sometimes when you look at a team on paper and when you look at their performance on the field it is like comparing day to night. All the predictions before a game mean nothing on the day as it doesn’t come down to what a team looks like on paper and we know we are going to have to play really well to beat the Lions.”
Coetzee said Taute would be out for about two weeks, and reiterated his earlier line that he would be conservative in bringing the Springbok back into the game after a long lay-off.
“People have to understand that Jaco had a very serious operation done to his knee and the whole knee has been restructured. He would have played in the game against Boland but his knee played up a bit. There is a bit of swelling and he feels stiff, so we don’t want to risk him. So I estimate he will probably be out for two weeks, up until such a time that he can comfortably play 40 to 60 minutes for us.”
Siviwe Soyizwapi, who played well for the Kings in their draw against the Brumbies last year, is with the Stormers on loan, and may be one of the options. However, as he weighs in at just 75 kilograms, that would be a risky selection as it would set up the same question marks over the back three that are in place when Cheslin Kolbe and Aplon are part of the same combination.
Coetzee confirmed that he is still searching for a big wing from outside the region, but reading between the lines it appears the players he was looking at are not available and the negotiations have fallen through. Either that, or he is having second thoughts about the player they may be talking to.
“My policy is to look inside first, as it would not serve us to contract a player from outside who is only five percent better than a player we already have in the region. We also have to be sure about what we are getting. If a player is being let go by his overseas club, there might be a reason that we need to know about before employing him. There is no point in contracting a has-been.”
Meanwhile Jean de Villiers, who missed the warm-up game against the Kings after sustaining an ear injury against the Bulls in Polokwane, is fit to lead the team on Saturday, while Rynhardt Elstadt has sufficiently recovered from his rib injury to slot into the second row alongside Argentine international Manuel Carizza.
The team will be finalised and announced on Wednesday but should look something like this: Gio Aplon, Kobus van Wyk, Michael van der Spuy, Jean de Villiers (Captain), Damian de Allende, Demetri Catrakilis, Louis Schreuder, Duane Vermeulen, Schalk Burger, Siya Kolisi, Manuel Carizza, Rynhardt Elstadt, Frans Malherbe, Scarra Ntubeni, Steven Kitshoff.