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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Springbok centre Jaque Fourie may make a delayed start to the Stormers’ pre-season activities.
But otherwise the senior personnel in the Stormers’ ranks boast pretty clean bills of health, and were out doing “strongman” work in the late-morning summer heat at their Bellville training premises on Wednesday.
Much of it involved dragging chains and pushing iron panels to and fro in “relay” groups: among the big names involved were Schalk Burger and Bryan Habana and fit-again staple players like Andries Bekker, Juan de Jongh, Tiaan Liebenberg and Wicus Blaauw.
First-choice flyhalf Peter Grant, who has had lingering club commitments in Japan, is expected to be back with the squad a little later in January.
The Stormers have their now traditional practice-match day against the two local Varsity sides at Riebeek-Kasteel on Saturday, although Coetzee has overwhelmingly named secondary players from the Vodacom Cup and U21 sides for that occasion.
After the media pack deftly sidestepped a considerate invitation to join the sweat session, Coetzee told Sport24 that he expected a “damned hard” Super 15.
“(Considering the number of South African derbies), we’re almost playing a Currie Cup within the Super 15. There will be a real dogfight for that top spot in our conference, you can be sure.
“From our perspective our pre-season has been going well. We’ve trained hard, including the period before the holiday break, and players look in decent shape.
“Of course we’re also a long way from where we want to be: we still have some six weeks before our first Super 15 game. So it’s not the final product yet.”
Coetzee was a little cagey when asked whether the Stormers had completely closed their books on any new-signing activity: “You can see we have a large group out there, and we all know that CJ van der Linde was a welcome and necessary recruitment; he will ease the burden on Brokkie (Harris) in the tighthead position.
“We’re a settled side, and we got to two finals last year. I don’t think there are many, or any, new players needed. You always lack in depth if you pick up four injuries in a particular position.
“I mean, you’d love to have a Pat Lambie and Elton Jantjies to go with your Peter Grant and Lionel Cronje, wouldn’t you? But nobody has that luxury: who is to say that our flyhalf depth outside our top two will be any worse than the Bulls, for instance?
“We also have Gary van Aswegen and Elgar Watts (the slippery Pumas pivot in 2010) as options for us. I’m quite excited to have Elgar on board for the first time; he’s showing some good touches.
“Yes, the Sharks look to have good depth at No 10 for this season, but then we have a centre stock that is better than many other franchises can boast.”
Coetzee confirmed that Rohan Kitshoff, the useful Namibian-born Griquas flank from the Currie Cup last season, was training with the broad Stormers squad, although no contractual arrangements have been made with the 25-year-old.
He said he hoped to give his “settled players” around 120 minutes each – basically a game and a half – in the Neo Africa Tri-Series, but this would not preclude some experimenting with combinations.
Cape Town – Springbok centre Jaque Fourie may make a delayed start to the Stormers’ pre-season activities.
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Coach Allister Coetzee revealed that Fourie was “touch and go – I don’t want to rush him” to play a role in the Neo Africa Tri-Series at Newlands from the end of January, when his charges will play both the Lions and Sharks in tune-up friendlies.
But otherwise the senior personnel in the Stormers’ ranks boast pretty clean bills of health, and were out doing “strongman” work in the late-morning summer heat at their Bellville training premises on Wednesday.
Much of it involved dragging chains and pushing iron panels to and fro in “relay” groups: among the big names involved were Schalk Burger and Bryan Habana and fit-again staple players like Andries Bekker, Juan de Jongh, Tiaan Liebenberg and Wicus Blaauw.
First-choice flyhalf Peter Grant, who has had lingering club commitments in Japan, is expected to be back with the squad a little later in January.
The Stormers have their now traditional practice-match day against the two local Varsity sides at Riebeek-Kasteel on Saturday, although Coetzee has overwhelmingly named secondary players from the Vodacom Cup and U21 sides for that occasion.
After the media pack deftly sidestepped a considerate invitation to join the sweat session, Coetzee told Sport24 that he expected a “damned hard” Super 15.
“(Considering the number of South African derbies), we’re almost playing a Currie Cup within the Super 15. There will be a real dogfight for that top spot in our conference, you can be sure.
“From our perspective our pre-season has been going well. We’ve trained hard, including the period before the holiday break, and players look in decent shape.
“Of course we’re also a long way from where we want to be: we still have some six weeks before our first Super 15 game. So it’s not the final product yet.”
Coetzee was a little cagey when asked whether the Stormers had completely closed their books on any new-signing activity: “You can see we have a large group out there, and we all know that CJ van der Linde was a welcome and necessary recruitment; he will ease the burden on Brokkie (Harris) in the tighthead position.
“We’re a settled side, and we got to two finals last year. I don’t think there are many, or any, new players needed. You always lack in depth if you pick up four injuries in a particular position.
“I mean, you’d love to have a Pat Lambie and Elton Jantjies to go with your Peter Grant and Lionel Cronje, wouldn’t you? But nobody has that luxury: who is to say that our flyhalf depth outside our top two will be any worse than the Bulls, for instance?
“We also have Gary van Aswegen and Elgar Watts (the slippery Pumas pivot in 2010) as options for us. I’m quite excited to have Elgar on board for the first time; he’s showing some good touches.
“Yes, the Sharks look to have good depth at No 10 for this season, but then we have a centre stock that is better than many other franchises can boast.”
Coetzee confirmed that Rohan Kitshoff, the useful Namibian-born Griquas flank from the Currie Cup last season, was training with the broad Stormers squad, although no contractual arrangements have been made with the 25-year-old.
He said he hoped to give his “settled players” around 120 minutes each – basically a game and a half – in the Neo Africa Tri-Series, but this would not preclude some experimenting with combinations.
