Tahs wary of Stormers young attack

 

The Cape Town Franchise will face an Australian opponent for the first time on their tour down-under, after suffering defeats to the Hurricanes and the Highlanders of the New Zealand conference.

 

The narrow five point loss to the tournament leading Hurricanes, saw the Stormers drop to ninth on the log, leaving them one point clear of last year's champions the Waratahs.

 

For the Waratahs, it is the first time facing up against a South African side in 2015, after the first six rounds saw the team from Sydney face only Australian and New Zealand sides.

 

This Saturday sees the Stormers come up against the Waratahs at Sydney.

 

While Vermeulen sits out for the final two matches of their four-match tour of New Zealand and Australia in light of the South African Rugby Union request, the Stormers will regain the service of the likes of De Jongh, Michael Rhodes and Kobus van Wyk, who should be back to full training on Tuesday.

 

While acknowledging that the Stormers would indeed miss the services of Springbok Vermeulen, Waratahs’ defensive coach, Nathan Grey, said that the Stormers would still provide a challenge for the defending champions.

 

"They’re a very physical side, yes, Vermeulen’s not playing, but they’re getting back Juan De Jong, another starting player, their vice-captain who has been named as their captain [in replace of Vermeulen]." Grey said. 

 

"You lose a bit somewhere you gain somewhere else. They played very well against the Hurricanes the other week and were a little bit unlucky not to get a result there.

 

"But they provide a lot of firepower across the park and they’ve got good skills so we’re very much aware of that."

 

Having scored the least amount of points in last year’s competition, the Stormers have been considerably more dynamic in attack this season.

 

They have scored almost 24 points on average per game, which defence-coach, Grey, put down to an emphasis of promoting youth.

 

"They’ve got a good young group of players in there,” he said.

 

"You’ve got Juan De Jongh who comes in there at 13 who provides a really good base for them.

 

"But they’ve got a lot of young guys who are trying to play there way and play really well at this level and that’s exciting for them and dangerous for us. 

 

"They back themselves a lot of the time which is a real positive sign for them.

 

"Yes, they’re younger guys and that provides an opportunity [for us] because they don’t have as much as experience, but they’ve got that young, let’s have a crack attitude which is going to present them opportunities if we’re lazy."