Masimla's future looks golden

Godlen Masimla showcased why he is a scrumhalf to watch this year when he helped the Stormers claim a comprehensive 45-7 victory over the Boland Cavaliers at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

Masimla ran in two tries within the first 15 minutes of the match and newly appointed Currie Cup coach, John Dobson (who was the coach of the side on the day) believes the young scrumhalf has a bright future.

"Godlen [Masimla] can improve on his basics and executing his passes a lot better, but you can see he is something special and can go really far.

"He played a lot at wing when he was at UWC, so he possesses an immense amount of speed, has a great step on him and proved that if you move off him, he will punish you. That's how he scored both of his tries against Boland.

"He is very competitive and his defence is superb. We are bringing him through the ranks nicely, hopefully he can get more Currie Cup and Super Rugby games under his belt. I wouldn't be surprised if we see him in the green and gold in about four years from now," he said.

The match was not without it's casualties though, as the Stormers' lock crisis deepened as both David Ribbans and Chris van Zyl picked up calf muscle injuries. Prop Frans van Wyk also limped off the field after he damaged ankle ligaments and could spend some time on the sidelines.

Dobson was happy with the overall performance of the rest of the players and highlighted a few of them who stood out.

"It was nice to see Oliver Kebble last 80 minutes. I really thought he would be a bunch of lard after the match but he was really cheerful. He has putting in a lot more effort and his self-confidence is a lot higher.

"For a guy who hasn't played in about a year, Ryno Eksteen proved his pedigree and has now created a case for Robert du Preez to maybe move to inside centre.

"Tshotsho Mbovane, proved what he is capable of with the try he scored. When professional rugby was at its worse, he got spat out and really struggled. It's nice to have him involved again and I would be quite chuffed to get him back into the system again," he added.

He has particularly worried about [Robert] Du Preez not executing the fundamentals, which potentially denied the Stormers more opportunities at scoring tries.

"To me, not finding touch three times in 30 minutes, is a fundamental thing that needs to be sorted out. With our maul, that's probably two tries from three line-outs," he stated.

Overall though Dobson believed the general play was poor, the Stormers never got through the phases, the execution of passes was average and the breakdown play was also poor.

However, despite that, he still believes the youthfulness of the team is a good reflection of the depth in the province.

Tauriq Ebrahim

@rugby365com