The Stormers Thread

[TRF_stormer2010]

So on that note of lineout operator, we've made a lock signing. Hendre Stassen. Bit of an interesting one. Coming off a 4 year doping ban, but was a junior bok and at 25 still has quite a bit of playing time in him. Previously Bulls and then Stade Francais. Pretty similar frame to Moerat at 2m and 120kg.

Saw that just now. Certainly helpful but we could do with more significant signings in the tight 5. I'm happy enough elsewhere apart from at 13 perhaps.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Stormers XV 57-12 SWD Eagles​

The scorers:

For Stormers:
Tries: Hollis 2, Venter 3, Stassen 2, penalty try, Taylor
Cons: Blommetjies 6

For SWD Eagles:
Tries: Hollis 2
Con: 1

Stormers XV: 15 Leolin Zas, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Chris Hollis, 12 Juan de Jongh, 11 Godlen Masimla, 10 Clayton Blommetjies, 9 Herschel Jantjies (captain), 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Nama Xaba, 5 Gary Porter, 4 Hendre Stassen, 3 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Lizo Gqoboka.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Leon Lyons, 19 Dylan Sjoblom, 20 Keenan Opperman, 21 Jarrd Taylor, 22 Tom Bursey, 23 Brendan Venter 24 Bingo Ivanisevic.

Stormers XV 33-21 Sharks​

The scorers:

For Stormers XV:
Tries: Du Plessis, Davids 2, Nel, Roos
Cons: Blommetjies 4

For Sharks:
Tries: Kok 2, Buthelezi
Cons: Bosch 3

Stormers XV (v Sharks): 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche (captain), 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Hendre Stassen, 20 Jarrod Taylor, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Mnombo Zwelendaba, 24 Clayton Blommetjies.

 

[saulan]

Looks unlikely we are getting Vermeulen anymore now that SARU have confirmed/announced his retirement.

Edit: Nevermind, there is still hope. We may be looking to offer him a player coach type deal:

Bok veteran Duane Vermeulen's Test retirement confirmed: 'A true legend of the sport' | Sport

SA Rugby on Wednesday heaped praise on Springbok No 8 Duane Vermeulen, who has retired from international rugby.

www.news24.com

 

[saulan]

We are really not looking great for next season in the forwards. Only acquisitions have been former players (Kitshoff and Schickerling) and now we've just lost Evan Roos to injury/operation for the next six months. Reading on Rugby365 that Dobson sent Roos an expletive laden voice note on finding out has me thinking he was clearly blindsided. We just shipped out some of our backup and starting loose forwards (Dayimani, Pokomela, Xaba) and could've possibly snapped up Notshe again if we were aware we would be down another loose forward.

Deon Fourie is out until October too. All of a sudden we've become super light in the loose forward department, the one area where South Africa (and the Stormers) usually has a ton of depth.

Thankfully if players recover from injury I think we are looking pretty solid in our backline, with a bit of flexibility… trying to think about what our starting line up may look like but this may be one of the first times as a Stormers supporter where our backline appears stronger than our forwards.

Kitshoff
Dweba (Hugo-Venter)
Malherbe
Moerat
Schickerling
Jason-Dickson
Engelbrecht (Fourie)
Morabe (I honestly don't know who we throw at 8 given Roos is out)

De Wet (Jantjies)
Libbok (SFM)
Hartzenberg
Willemse (du Plessis)
Nel (Simelane)
Zas (Loader/Davids)
SFM (Gelant/Blommetjies)

There is a lot of versatility and players able to cover other positions in the backline. Things looks really thin in the forwards. Props drop quite a level when you go to the bench, same with locks (and even starting on locks isn't the most stellar). Loose forward is a critical issue for us.

 

[saulan]

Not great news for us. SFM out until EoYT with knee op, meaning he will miss our first 5 games of the season. Those being:
Ospreys (A), Zebre (A), Edinburgh (A), Munster (H), Glasgow (H)
3/5 from those won't be too bad, but I'm relying on us getting those first two as wins away from home, where we have been quite poor historically. In general the team's performance in the Currie Cup doesn't have me wildly optimistic for the season.