DOBSON: STORMER FOURIE IS PROBABLY AT A…

STORMERS coach John Dobson reckons Deon Fourie is “probably at a crossroads” in his career. 

The 38-year-old Springbok loose-forward lasted all of 30 seconds off the bench in his return from a concussion before suffering a suspected broken tibia against Connacht in the Stormers’ 34-29 United Rugby Championship win over the Irish club on Saturday.

And Dobson says he can only hope that it doesn’t spell the end of the oldest Bok debutant in history. 

Dobson says: “It looks like a broken tibia.

“We haven’t scanned or x-rayed him yet, but Keke [Morabe, loose forward] was out for how long, close to a year with that, so you’d have to do the maths and realise we’re probably at a crossroads, which I hope is not the case.

“That’s a very serious injury, by the looks of things. I don’t know where this leave us or him, to be honest. After La Rochelle last year [when he was out injured for a long time] he said he didn’t want to finish his career on a golf cart, hopefully Deon will say he doesn’t want to finish it like that, let’s hope.”

The Stormers were left off the hook in a dramatic finish against Connacht after the Irish scored on the stroke of full-time only for the try to be denied due to obstruction, which saw the Kapenaars secure a vital bonus-point victory at Cape Town Stadium that saw them leap into eighth place (40 points) on the standings.

Bok utility back Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu ran the show with class, scoring a hat-trick of tries and delivering a man-of-the-match performance, which paved the way for the hosts to score five tries, but they will be disappointed with their defence after leaking the same number of tries in what turned out to be a ding-dong battle.