Injuries to key players are hurting the Stormers in this year’s Rainbow Cup SA, according to coach John Dobson.
The Cape Town Stadium hosts entered Saturday’s 20-16 defeat to the Bulls minus the likes of Ruhan Nel (Springbok Sevens), Kade Wolhuter (knee), Herschel Jantjies (contusion), Nama Xaba (ankle) JD Schickerling (ankle) and Salmaan Moerat (neck).
To make matters worse, they also lost Marvin Orie (concussion) early in the match against the Bulls. With three frontline locks out, their lineouts simply didn’t function.
Dobson explains: “You take Salmaan [Moerat], JD [Schickerling] and Marvin [Orie] – three world class locks – out of the game… that was tough, you could see that we struggled a bit at lineout. We lost lost two crucial ones in the last five minutes.
“[To lose Orie was a] big loss to lose the lineouts, because the other caller is JD and he’s also injured.”
Partnering Godlen Masimla, who suffered a finger dislocation while covering for Jantjies, at halfback, Abner van Reenen also didn’t have the best of games at flyhalf.
And Dobson says of the 22-year-old: “Abner hasn’t played much rugby in the last year and a bit and going into a high-pressure game like this is putting him under quite a bit of stress. I think he was very, very nervous before the game. He had some really good moments.”
The coach adds: “I don’t fault our effort, you could see at the breakdown, the way we chased kicks and stuff. It’s just the odd sort of execution error… it was across the board.
“To take Abner with one Preparation Cup game and to throw him against two Springboks and judge him harshly would be too harsh.”
Dobson’s men will be looking to bounce back when they face the last-placed Lions at Ellis Park this week.