Stormers coach John Dobson has made no fewer than 10 changes to his starting XV for Friday night’s United Rugby Championship match against Ulster in Belfast, Ireland, at 9.35pm.
Dobson’s team booked their place in the European Champions Cup last 16 with a 30-16 win over Clermont in Cape Town last weekend and with a number of Springboks rested, the coach decided to give a vrag fringe players a go.
Sitting pretty in second place on the URC table with seven round-robin matches including this one to play, the Stormers can afford to chop and change.
5⃣0⃣ up for Ali Vermaak as we play our first-ever @Vodacom #URC match in Belfast on Friday night.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) January 26, 2023
📄 Full team announcement https://t.co/aR32wtFwer#iamastormer #dhldelivers pic.twitter.com/JIx2ZReFl7
And Dobson het nie op hom laat wag nie, making four changes to his backline where Clayton Blommetjies comes in for Damian Willemse at fullback, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for Dan du Plessis at inside centre, Cornel Smit for Angelo Davids on the left wing and Jean-Luc du Plessis for Kade Wolhuter at flyhalf.
Up front, there are a hele six changes, with only blindside flanker Willie Engelbrecht and captain Marvin Orie holding on to their starting berths from last week.
With only Herschel Jantjies keeping his spot on the bench too, Dobson, though, is not worried about all the changes and expects this team to challenge Duane Vermeulen and his teammates.
He says: “What makes me very happy about this team is that after winning the trophy last year, we said we wanted to build depth.
“And if we can put out a team like this one, it’s a testament to where we are.
“I am really pleased with the quality of this team, which I’m sure can do the job for us [tonight].”
Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Cornel Smit, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 Marvin Orie (captain), 4 Ben-Jason Dixon, 3 Brok Harris, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Ali Vermaak. Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Kwenzo Blose, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Kade Wolhuter, 23 Juan de Jongh.
TEAM P W L D PD Pts
1 Leinster 12 12 0 0 196 56
2 Stormers 11 8 2 1 119 45
3 Bulls 12 8 4 0 70 9
4 Ulster 11 7 4 0 79 38
5 Glasgow 11 7 4 0 27 34
6 Benetton 12 7 5 0 -37 33
7 Munster 12 6 6 0 51 32
8 Edinburgh 12 5 7 0 55 30
9 Sharks 10 6 4 0 23 29
10 Cardiff 12 6 6 0 -18 29
11 Connacht 12 5 7 0 -46 25
12 Lions 11 5 6 0 -74 24
13 Ospreys 12 3 7 2 -40 24
14 Dragons 12 3 9 0 -75 17
15 Scarlets 12 3 8 1 -93 17
16 Zebre 12 0 12 0 -237 5
dudley.carstens@inl.co.za