Stormers director of rugby John Dobson says his team is not ready for the start of the United Rugby Championship (URC).
Speaking at a URC roundtable discussion on Tuesday, the Stormers boss says the untimely postponement of their URC opening game against the Bulls at Cape Town Stadium on September 21 – because of the Currie Cup final taking place on the same day – has thrown his team’s preparations deurmekaar.
The Stormers must now travel to Wales to tackle Ospreys on September 28 and have no warm-up friendlies lined up ahead of their three-week tour where they also play Scotland’s Edinburgh and Italy’s Zebre.
Last week’s Currie Cup game between Western Province and Griquas in Kimberley was supposed to be the Stormers’ friendly ahead of the canned Bulls URC clash.
And although a vrag Stormers played for WP in that game, Dobson says of how they are skarreling for nog ‘n game: “[We’re] definitely not ready at the moment…
“There are still guys like Warrick Gelant [and] Ruhan Nel who have had no game-time and a guy like Dan du Plessis who is only on 60 minutes and so too Neethling Fouche.
“We are way off match readiness.”
Meanwhile, Dobson adds that he will need to up his juggling skills when it comes to team selections – especially with injury returning Springbok Damian Willemse expected to fill in at flyhalf during the URC opening rounds, while Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu are still on national duty.
He explains: “I think we as SA teams are still learning [to manage players], to be honest – we need to get better at that.
“Our challenge is that we probably have [developed] a Springbok or two extra, that we did not expect – like a Sacha or BJ [Ben-Jason Dixon].
“It becomes a hell of a management project when you need to factor in their resting [periods] and a lot of [other] guys on national duty.”
He adds: “It is not like the old days of Super Rugby.
“That juggling is not good enough at the moment…”