The Stormers' park is full of competition

Damian de Allende has been ruled out for 12 weeks. Photo: Chris Ricco/BackpagePix

Damian de Allende has been ruled out for 12 weeks. Photo: Chris Ricco/BackpagePix

Published Feb 28, 2017

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CAPE TOWN - Centre Damian de Allende’s injury may be a massive blow for the Stormers, but skills coach Paul Feeney believes that they have "plenty of depth" to deal with the Springbok’s lay-off.

De Allende, who sustained an ankle injury in the Stormers’ 37-24 victory over the Bulls at Newlands on Saturday, is expected to spend 12 weeks on the sidelines and joins hooker Scarra Ntubeni (Achilles tendon tear), wing Leolin Zas (broken leg) and Juan de Jongh (knee ligament) on the injury list.

And despite Feeney’s optimism, De Allende’s performance at the weekend probably made his injury even more uncomfortable for the Stormers.

The centre, who has been struggling to return to his firing 2015 form, showed positives signs on Saturday with big runs, good metres gained and a solid contribution to the Stormers’ tackle tally, and Feeney agreed that De Allende is probably “the fittest he’s ever been”.

“You saw some of the touches when he was on. He gave us good front-foot ball and the confidence he gives the players around him is evident. It’s a massive loss, especially on the back of the loss of Juan de Jongh as well. But hey, this happens in rugby,” Feeney said.

But Feeney was also confident that the Stormers roster boasted enough promising replacements in the form of Dan du Plessis, Dan Kriel and Huw Jones, who joins the Stormers this week.

“I feel gutted for Damian, but it’s an opportunity for someone else. We’ve got some good centres. Dan du Plessis had some good pre-season games and we’ve got Dan Kriel who came on. So I’m excited, I think we’ve got plenty of depth. You need competition for places in the group. And we’ve got that all over the park,” he added.

Jones, who has given the Stormers pure pace in the outside centre channel, has said that he prefers No 13, but Feeney says that the Scottish international can cut it just as well at No 12.

“Huw Jones is a good 13, but there’s no reason why he can’t play 12. Any midfielder should be able to play both positions.”

Despite the latest injury concern and a few possible midfield selection headaches, the Stormers season-opening win over their traditional rivals should have given coach Robbie Fleck enough reasons to smile ahead of a tough season, especially since so many of the areas that his side worked on during the pre-season really showed in their first fixture.

The attacking intent was there, they got a few good passes away, their set-pieces were solid and their work at the breakdown - an area that Fleck said was crucial if they want to compete with the Kiwi sides - also topped the Bulls’ efforts.

And Feeney said it was pleasing to see the things they had worked on pre-season were starting to show.

“Our conditioning showed. Their Bulls coach admitted that our forwards got the better of them at the set-piece and that’s where it starts. The backline also finished well on some good front-foot ball they got from the forwards,” the former Blues skills coach said.

“Robbie has driven the amount of skill work the boys have done and we’ve put hours upon hours into our catch and pass and our lines. We expected to have improved and I think it has. It’s coming through”

"Don’t get me wrong, it’s the start of the competition and there’s a long way to go, but it was a good start.”

Feeney, who joined the Stormers coaching team late last year, also said that the reception from the Newlands faithful was a great experience for him. 

“For me, it was a great occasion. There were about 16000 people cheering the team outside, and 35000 in the stadium, and I think the boys responded on the field.”

Cape Argus

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