Stormers beef up for big Bulls
Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has beefed up his pack for their Super Rugby north-south derby with the Bulls at Newlands on Saturday by naming the physical Rynhardt Elstadt on the flank.
Elstadt made his Super Rugby debut last year and played only at lock, although he has experience on the side of the scrum as well, and he comes in for Nick Koster who moves to the bench with Duane Vermeulen shifting to No.8 - the position he played all of last season.
The only other changes to Coetzee's unbeaten side come on the replacements bench where fit-again hooker Deon Fourie takes the place of Siyabonga Ntubeni and Burton Francis comes in for Gary van Aswegen who rolled his ankle at training and is expected to be out of action for three to four weeks.
Coetzee explained that the inclusion of Elstadt is in order to ensure that his team is able to match the physicality of a bruising Bulls pack.
"The main reason is just to get parity, we are playing against a very formidable Bulls pack and if you watched the way they demolished a star-studded Wallaby pack against the Reds last week then you will understand why we have done this," he said.
The Stormers boss added that he is not worried about the fact that Elstadt has not played on the flank for a while, and expressed confidence that he and Vermeulen would give a good account of themselves in their 'old' positions.
He said: "It is not a completely strange position for him [Elstadt], he has played there at Under-21 level and also for the SA U20s as well. It is a big pack and that is what you need against the Bulls.
"Duane played at No.8 the whole season last year and we feel this is the right thing to do this weekend.
"As a unit, in terms of the athleticism of the pack, I am quite happy. Size-wise I must say it is quite a big pack, but one thing the Bulls side does bring is physicality and I think that is one of the biggest challenges this weekend," added the Stormers coach.
Coetzee said that although he was disappointed with his side's scrappy win against the Lions last week, he thought that they had showed good character and determination to hold out as the Johannesburg side threw absolutely everything at them in the final stages of the match.
He commented: "We would like to improve on last week's performance but I must say that although we were not accurate enough we found a way to hang in and close the game out to win, and that is also another big positive for me.
"We are not happy with being innacurrate at crucial stages of the game but at this stage of the competition there are about 21 bonus points for losing within seven points of the opposition which is testimony to sides which defend well, and one thing we do well is that we can close games out with our defence."
The Stormers coach said that his team are under no illusions about the ferocity of the test awaiting them on Saturday, but added that they are intensely focused on securing a win to give them some momentum before they go on tour.
He said: "If you look at the spine of their team No.2 is a Springbok, No.8, 10, 12 and 15 are all Springboks so with Springboks in those positions it is a very formidable team that we are facing this weekend.
"We are going on tour after this game and it would be really great if we can pull off a win to keep the momentum going."
Stormers: 15 Joe Pietersen, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Dewaldt Duvenage, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Rynhardt Elstadt, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Tiaan Liebenberg, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Frans Malherbe, 18 De Kock Steenkamp, 19 Nic Koster, 20 Louis Schreuder, 21 Burton Francis, 22 Gerhard van den Heever.
Date: Saturday, March 31
Venue: Newlands, Cape Town
Kick-off: 19.10 (17.10 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Stuart Berry (South Africa), Cobus Wessels (South Africa)
TMO: Johann Meuwesen * (South Africa)