Bok blow for Stormers
The Stormers were dealt a cruel blow on the eve of the Super Rugby season, with one of their key players ruled out through injury.
It was confirmed on Tuesday that Springbok midfielder Juan de Jongh suffered a knee injury which will rule him out for six weeks – which means he will not feature in the early weeks of the tournament.
The Stormers, who have a bye in Week One, depart for Australasia in the first week of March and De Jongh may return only once they are back on home soil in April.
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee said: "He [De Jongh] has a slight tear in his lateral meniscus, and so he will be scoped today and then we will know his fate. But I can say that it will be a minimum of six weeks.
"It happened during the game [against the Bulls] and he was pulled off at half-time, and it didn't seem to be that serious but obviously it was," he explained.
De Jongh, who has 14 Test caps to his name, played in 57 games for the Stormers and another 40-odd Currie Cup games for Western Province.
He is the regular midfield partner of Bok captain Jean de Villiers.
Neither of them will feature when the Stormers face the Southern Kings in a pre-season outing in Port Elizabeth on Friday as De Villiers took a knock to the ear and is being rested as a precaution.
This means that Damian de Allende will partner Michael van der Spuy in midfield against the Kings this weekend, and Coetzee is confident that they will be able to step up.
"Jean has taken a blow to the ear, and you don't want to risk him now so he will probably be out for another week.
"Damian needs to get time at 12, he will be playing there in Super Rugby as well," he said.
The Stormers coach said that he was not concerned about a lack of depth at centre as he had a number of players who could slot in, including Peter Grant who was expected to return from Japan before the start of the Stormers' Super Rugby campaign.
"Kobus [van Wyk] is also a centre so he can play there and don't forget that Peter Grant is also a 12. Jean de Villiers can play 12 and 13. It is a concern when you lose two backs of the quality of Cheslin Kolbe and Juan de Jongh but I think we will be fine.
"Michael van der Spuy did well in the Currie Cup last year and he gets a start again this weekend. Pat Howard is actually more of a 13 than a winger so he is one of the other players in the squad," he said.
A major pre-season headache for Coetzee has been the lack of fit outside backs in his squad, and although he was pleased with the performances of Van Wyk and Scott van Breda against the Bulls last week he revealed that he is close to signing someone that would be able to fill the gap left by the departure of Bryan Habana and Gerhard van den Heever last year.
"I am really close to getting one [outside back] and I will probably in the next week or two make an announcement," he said.
Gio Aplon will not feature this weekend either as he is getting married, but the Stormers will welcome back Jaco Taute who has finally recovered from his major knee injury.
"It is great to have Jaco back. There is not a big expectation on Jaco, as he has been out for a while but he has trained well and so we are looking at giving him a minimum of 30 minutes to see how it goes.
"It is a matter of getting the confidence back after an injury like that," said Coetzee.
The Stormers coach said that Taute would probably not be considered at centre because of the depth they have in midfield, and would rather be used exclusively at fullback this season.
"We have been talking about that too but we are really thin in the outside backs, I would rather have Jaco playing 80 minutes at fullback when he is well enough and then look at Gio on the wing.
"That would be a better option than wasting him at centr. We have sufficient cover at centre at this point in time," he said.
