The Stormers will be without the powerful Evan Roos for their URC playoff against the Glasgow Warriors. The Stormers will be without the powerful Evan Roos for their URC playoff against the Glasgow Warriors. Picture: Rodger Bosach / AFP
The Stormers gave their fans a dose of good and bad news ahead of their United Rugby Championship playoff match against the Glasgow Warriors on Saturday night (kickoff 8.35pm).
The bad news is the loss of Evan Roos, who has been ruled out with a concussion picked up in training this week. Roos has been an influential player over the last two months for the Cape side and will be dearly missed.
However, the good news is that fullback Warrick Gelant makes a timely return to the side and will go straight into the staring line-up for the match to ease some of the Stormers backline issues.
The Stormers lost Damian Willemse for the rest of the season to a finger injury in a match against Connacht, while Angelo Davids is suspended after a dangerous tackle against the Lions earned him earn a straight red card.
Gelant had been rested for the last league fixture of the season against the Lions and makes his return at fullback, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu moving to inside centre to link up with Dan du Plessis in midfield. The only other change to the backline sees Ben Loader come into the starting line-up on the left wing.
In the forward pack, Roos is replaced at openside flank by Willie Engelbrecht, while there is an all-new front row of Brok Harris, Joseph Dweba and Frans Malherbe, who all featured from the replacements bench in the win against the Emirates Lions last week.
Connor Evans and a fit-again Paul de Wet are included among the replacements, along with last week's starting front row of Sti Sithole, Andre-Hugo Venter and Neethling Fouche.
Director of rugby John Dobson said that his team is determined to rise to the challenge of playing their first away knock-out fixture in the competition.
"We know that it will take a top performance to stay alive in this competition and that is a challenge we have embraced.
"We will have to do it without a number of our frontline players due to injuries, but it is a testament to the depth we have built and the quality of our squad that there is plenty of belief.
"Despite having almost a full team ruled out, we have built up some good momentum heading into the play-offs.
"This is our first Vodacom URC play-off match away from home after playing six at DHL Stadium and we want to show that we can rise to the occasion," he said.
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Dan du Plessis, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Brok Harris.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Adre Smith, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Connor Evans, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis.
@JohnGoliath82
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