Big names missing from Stormers' line-up
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: Stomers Directors of Rugby John Dobson has made several changes for the team’s Champions Cup Round Four clash against Racing 92 on Saturday.
Springboks Evan Roos and Joseph Dweba come into the Stormers starting line-up for the Champions Cup clash in Paris.
Dweba is joined in the front row by Neethling Fouche, with Frans Malherbe set to make an impact off the replacements bench.
Captain Salmaan Moerat is joined in the second row by Ruben van Heerden, while Willie Engelbrecht and Marcel Theunissen are on either side of the scrum with Roos at No.8.
The loose trio changes see Deon Fourie missed the encounter in France.
The other significant changes are the absence of former Racing 92 back Warrick Gelant and flyhalf Manie Libbok in the backline.
Last week’s Man of the Match Gelant is replaced by Clayton Blommetjies at fullback and Libbok is replaced by Jurie Matthee.
The flyhalf will form a new halfback pairing with the experienced Dewaldt Duvenage
Director of Rugby John Dobson said that it will be key for his team to adapt to the conditions as quickly as possible to impose themselves on the game.
“We are playing on an artificial pitch under a closed roof in the European winter, which is quite a change from the summer conditions we enjoyed at home last week.
“We’ve got some exciting players coming into the mix this week and we are looking forward to seeing what sort of impact they make,” he said.
Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Jonathan Roche, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Marcel Theunissen, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Sti Sithole.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 JD Schickerling, 20 Dave Ewers, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis.
Date: Saturday, January 18
Venue: La Defense Arena, Paris
Kick-off: 21.00 (22.00 SA time; 20.00 GMT)
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe (England)
Assistant referees: Karl Dickson (England), John Meredith (England)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (England)
