Stormers suffer double back row blow ahead of Edinburgh battle
INJURY UPDATE: The Stormers will be without the services of two of their most experienced loose forwards ahead of their Round Two United Rugby Championship clash against Edinburgh on Friday.
Springbok Evan Roos and club stalwart Marcel Theunissen both were both ruled out hours before kick-off ahead of the Stormers’ clash against Connacht this past Friday, which the Capetonians won by 29-15 in Galway.
Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani confirmed the duo were injured in training, not during the warm-up, but didn’t specify the nature or extent of their injuries at an online media conference on Monday.
“They’re back in Cape Town; we’re not sure how long they’ll be sidelined,” Hlungwani said.
“They’re both seeing specialists at the moment. Their injuries occurred during our training sessions on the 4G fields, not in the warm-up.
“The doctors will still have to assess the seriousness of their injuries due to the impact of the 4G pitch, but yes, it happened during training.”
Hlungwani also confirmed that Springbok prop Ntuthuko Mchunu joined the team on tour and touched on the availability of him and fellow Bok Ben-Jason Dixon against Edinburgh.
“Tuks [Ntuthuko Mchunu] arrived over the weekend [in Galway], and BJ [Ben Jason Dixon] has been with us, and he’s been training, so we’ll see when we finalise the team.”
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*Also read: Dobson hails Stormers debutants after Connacht win
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The impact of synthetic surfaces has been a thorn in the side of several teams that predominantly play on grass, and despite the injuries to their loose forward stocks, Hlungwani believes the Stormers are adapting to these pitches, with several teams in the URC making use of them.
“It’s always very different playing on those surfaces. I think we’re still cracking the code [on how to adapt to it], but we’re probably not there yet.
“We’ve made good progress, but we’d still like to get better at playing on those synthetic pitches.
“I guess a team that trains on it consistently will always have a bit of an advantage, but we’re trying our best, and we’ll slowly get there in terms of getting used to adapting and adjusting to it every time we play.
“There are several teams now with those pitches such as Edinburgh, Connacht, Cardiff and Ulster… I’m probably missing one now, but there are probably five teams in the URC with 4G pitches.
“It’s something that’s here to stay and something that we have to get used to.”
