[2015 Super Rugby] Force vs. Stormers (Round 10) 18/04/2015

[TRF_heineken]

nib Stadium, Perth

19:10 CAT (SA, GMT+2)​

Teams:

Force: TBA

Stormers: 15 Cheslin Kolbe, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Juan de Jongh (captain), 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Dillyn Leyds, 10 Demtri Catrakilis, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Ruan Botha, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff

Substitutes: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Alistair Vermaak, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Jean Kleyn, 20 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 21 Nic Groom, 22 Kurt Coleman, 23 Huw Jones

Referee - Mike Fraser

AR1 - Andrew Lees

AR2 - Will Houston

TMO - Ian Smith​

 

[SomeOke]

Michael Rhodes injured which is fine due to our depth in our loose trio but with Vermulen missing for now, it is probably the loss of our two most physically abrasive loosies. I hear Schalk and Demetri also may be out but we'll know soon enough.
As for the result, nothing but bathing in the blood of their woman and children will suffice.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Michael Rhodes injured which is fine due to our depth in our loose trio but with Vermulen missing for now, it is probably the loss of our two most physically abrasive loosies. I hear Schalk and Demetri also may be out but we'll know soon enough.
As for the result, nothing but bathing in the blood of their woman and children will suffice.

I like it.

Burger, Vermeulen, Elstadt and Rhodes out (if Burger is indeed out) would probably hurt us though as the Force are basically their backrow and harassing at the breakdown and not much else. I rate Notshe though. Him, Carr and Kolisi would be a very dynamic backrow even if giving away a ton of grunt. We could always look at moving one of the locks to blindside though. Botha should find it easy enough I'd imagine. On Catrakilis, I'd actually be all for Colleman starting at 10. We need a 10 who plays flatter to give DDA/JDJ more options on attack IMO.

I don't want to jinx us but I find it difficult to see us losing this one; the Force just don't have the moves to trouble our defense overly much.

 

[TRF_heineken]

That is probably the strongest team that the Stormers can put out to play with all the injuries they have...

Stormers to win by 14

 

[SomeOke]

Our loose trio is still perfectly acceptable, I fully expect the force to bring some heat but I will be bitterly disappointed if we can't come away with a win. Interesting to see Frans Malherbe starting again, it implies he is in fact the first choice despite Koch's extremely strong start. I do rate them both highly but I feel a bit bad for him, it's also possible we will rotate frequently but either way it's a good problem to have. I see Demetri is fit which is fine, Coleman has far more potential but it was disappointing to see him kick 2/5 last week, he's never going to cement his place unless he can be relied on to kick the points which is a pity but fair enough. As a side note I've been really impressed with our young wings this year, Van Wyk looking to bring through his Currie Cup form nicely, we're still probably a bit vulnerable to bombardment though.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

We're shaping up nicely though.

Like you said having both the premier SA tightheads in your squad is a nice problem to have. I expect we are seeing some rotation to keep Malherbe sharp. Koch and Ntubeni coming on with 20/30 to go I hope we see a lot of scrums against a tired Force scrum LOL.

Etzebeth and Botha starting at lock with Kleyn as back up is finally happening!! We've really been hit by injuries in the 2nd and 3rd row this season but got through the 2nd row conundrum relatively well and we are coping in the backrow as well; Vermeulen will have done his required rest from next week on and Notshe is a live wire to bring on in the 2nd stanza even if we'd be lacking some real grunt if Burger comes off.

Taute and Senatla will be real options quite soon looking at the end stretch.

The only thing that I see as a problem is our 9/10 combinations are just plain limited.