Stormers short on centres as they head north
SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT: A 29-man Stormers touring squad has left Cape Town for a tough four-match United Rugby Championship tour up north.
They will face Glasgow Warriors, Benetton Treviso, Munster and Cardiff on consecutive weekends over the next month.
With two bonus-point wins in South Africa under their belts against the Lions away and Scarlets at home to top the overall standings after two rounds, the squad now faces a drastic change of conditions in the coming weeks.
Centre Ruhan Nel, who went off with concussion against the Scarlets, has not been included in the squad.
The Stormers are already without centre Dan du Plessis who has a quad injury.
The tour starts with a short turnaround as they take on Glasgow Warriors at Scoutstoun on Friday and head coach John Dobson said that they will need to concentrate their preparations.
“While we are happy to have 10 log points from these first two games, this will be an altogether different challenge in vastly contrasting conditions.
“We are playing on an artificial pitch against an impressive Glasgow side, so we will have to make the most of all the training time we have after the travel.
“We have seen some encouraging signs this season already, but there are definitely some areas we must improve on if we are going to get the results we want from this tour.
“It is a great chance for us to pull together as a squad over the next month and embrace the challenges that are coming our way,” he said.
Stormers touring squad:
Forwards: Ben-Jason Dixon, Joseph Dweba, Willie Engelbrecht, Connor Evans, Neethling Fouche, Lizo Gqoboka, Brok Harris, Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, Keke Morabe, Scarra Ntubeni, Gary Porter, Evan Roos, Adre Smith, Marcel Theunissen, Ruben van Heerden, Andre-Hugo Venter, Ali Vermaak, Nama Xaba.
Backs: Clayton Blommetjies, Angelo Davids, Paul de Wet, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Warrick Gelant, Herschel Jantjies, Ben Loader, Courtnall Skosan, Stefan Ungerer, Leolin Zas.
