Watson retains captaincy

Cape Town - A family bereavement to Stormers prop JD Moller is responsible for the only change to the Cape team for Saturday’s final Super 14 match against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

Moller’s father lost his life in a motor accident on Tuesday, which means that Wicus Blaauw comes in at loosehead prop while Schalk Ferreira returns to the bench. Once again, Stormers coach Rassie Erasmus has opted for three front-row forwards among the reserves, with Springboks Brian Mujati and Schalk Brits being joined by Ferreira.

For both Mujati and Brits, this will be their last appearance in a Stormers jersey. Brits finishes off with the Stormers after this game before joining English club Saracens, while Mujati, although he will be available to play for Western Province in the Currie Cup, is on his way to Northampton in November.

Another man playing his swansong game is veteran AJ Venter, who ends a first class career which officially is down as having started in 1997 in terms of provincial caps, but which really started when he sat on the bench for Free State in their 1994 Currie Cup final at Springbok Park cricket ground, just a few hundred metres from where his 15 year odyssey comes to an end.

It wasn’t surprising that Erasmus should elect to keep his team unchanged. He admitted that had this been a game in which a semi-final place was up for grabs, both skipper Jean de Villiers and fellow Springbok Andries Bekker may have been included in the team.

“They are about 90% ready to play, it is one of those situations where if we were the Springboks playing the British Lions this week, then they might well have played, and had we been the Bulls or the Sharks they might also have played,” said Erasmus.

But the Stormers were outstanding in shocking the Western Force at Newlands last week, and Erasmus is eager to keep his young team together as he seeks to use this final match as a building block for the Currie Cup season.

“Certainly at the start of the Super 14 I would not have been wanting to use this stage of the season as a preparation for the Currie Cup, but that is how it has turned out for us. We as the management team could have taken the selfish route and brought back players like Percy Montgomery just so we can win, but we decided a few weeks ago that we need to look to the future now.”

Joe Pietersen, who played ahead of Montgomery against the Force, is one of the young players who was pushed in last week, and his man-of-the-match award was vindication for Erasmus’ policy.

Stormers:

Joe Pietersen, Gcobani Bobo, Dylan des Fountain, Peter Grant, Sireli Naqelevuki, Willem de Waal, Dewaldt Duvenage, Luke Watson (captain), Duane Vermeulen, Pieter Louw, AJ Venter, Hilton Lobberts, Brok Harris, Tiaan Liebenberg, Wicus Blaauw.

Reserves: Schalk Brits, Schalk Ferreira, Brian Mujati, Martin Muller, Ricky Januarie, Morgan Newman, Tonderai Chavhanga.