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Cape Town - Western Province have too much respect for what the Pumas can do in Nelspruit for them to risk giving players a much needed rest.
While there has been rotation to some aspects of the WP side during the domestic season, in others players have played right through the Currie Cup campaign – and those that have, also happen to be players who were there for every game of a Super 14 season which saw the Stormers go all the way to the final.
Duane Vermeulen and Brok Harris are the players in question, but coach Allister Coetzee says both have been well managed in training and this makes up for their lack of rest during matches.
“This is an important game for us. I tried to manage players the whole of last week, to give Brok and Duane and those guys a rest from training, which worked well,” said Coetzee.
“They also played for only between 20 and 30 minutes against the Leopards last week, with Duane playing a bit longer because he was off the field for 10 minutes because of an early yellow card. I feel the management part of these players went well, but I will definitely not look to do that again this week.
“I think that it is important that we train hard this week. It’s an away game and we want to go there with our strongest possible team available. With Lionel Cronje out injured, Willem de Waal will definitely come back into the starting lineup at flyhalf.”
WP will benefit this week from the return of some key players from injury, something that could create an interesting selection dilemma for Coetzee. For instance, while Nick Koster has played well over the past few matches as a No7 flank, Pieter Louw, in superb form before his rib injury sustained against the Sharks, was in excellent form before he was ruled out.
Under-21 stars Gary van Aswegan (flyhalf) and JJ Engelbrecht (wing) have been added to the WP training squad this week and could be called up for bench duty at the Mbombela Stadium, where the Pumas shocked the Bulls a few weeks ago.
Other players back in training on Monday after coming back from injury were hooker Hanyani Shimange, who will probably be on the bench in Nelspruit due to the continued absence of Tiaan Liebenberg, and Fabian Juries.
