VIDEO: 'You almost want two of them to get injured'
SPOTLIGHT: Stormers head coach John Dobson admitted that he has some good selection headaches to contend with when it comes to his backline players.
The Capetonians scored seven tries on their way to an important 43-21 home win over Edinburgh at the weekend.
The midfield combination of Dan du Plessis and Wandisile Simelane proved to be lethal out wide, while Suleiman Hartzenberg scored a hat-trick of tries.
Double World Cup-winner Damian Willemse was the real star of the show as he constantly terrorised Edinburgh’s defence when he had the ball and he created plenty of opportunities for his fellow backline players.
The Stormers will also have the luxury of getting another Springbok in the form of Warrick Gelant back as they prepare to take on Ulster, which will give Dobson some more options.
The story continues below…
“You almost want two of them to get injured, so you don’t have to go through that,” Dobson joked.
“It’s very tricky because Wandi was great and you got to keep Suleiman in the team.
“We are thrilled with Ben Loader and Warrick is coming back.”
Simelane was not included in the team that lost 22-40 against his old team the Bulls earlier this month and Dobson believes he missed a trick there.
“I thought hard about playing him there on that [Loftus Versfeld] field against his old team,” said Dobson.
“Dan was not really a No.13 and maybe I made a mistake there.
“Wandi is going to be special. Like Joseph Dweba’s throwing, don’t worry about Wandisile’s defence.
“He understands our system completely.”
The story continues below…
Meanwhile, Dobson was not too concerned about some of his team’s wasted try-scoring opportunities against Edinburgh.
“It felt like a bit of our spark was back. I think what’s frustrating is how many tries we left on the table,” the coach explained.
“It happened in Pretoria and I think it was double that against Edinburgh.
“It’s not something we got wrong with our shape. One was a TMO decision, and one was a knock-on or a drop pass, so it’s a mixture.
“I’d rather have this than not being able to create opportunities.”
Ulster will head to Cape Town after suffering a 12-22 defeat to the Sharks in Durban.
@rugby365com
