Burger, Vermeulen to rest later

Cape Town - Stormers coach Allister Coetzee does not intend to rest Springbok stalwarts Schalk Burger and Duane Vermeulen for their Super Rugby clash against the Rebels at Newlands on Saturday.

SARU has an agreement with franchises to rest top Springboks for parts of the Super Rugby campaign.

Vermeulen was rested for the Stormers' opening tour match (against the Highlanders), then went home early from the trip to Australasia, missing matches against the Waratahs and Force. However, he would need to sit out one more match before the playoffs.

In Burger's case, should he face the Rebels this weekend, he would need to sit out two of the Stormers final three league matches, Netwerk24 reports.

After the Rebels game, the Stormers host the Cheetahs (May 30) and Lions (June 6) before finishing their league campaign against the Sharks in Durban (June 13).

Coetzee said he wanted to pick his strongest possible team for the clash against the men from Melbourne.

“Obviously it means that Schalk will have to sit out two of the three games that will come after this, and Duane will have to sit out one, but we have decided that against the Rebels we want the strongest possible team,” Coetzee told supersport.com.

“There is sometimes a bit of rust and hangover after a bye, and we need to counter that, and to do that I have decided that we should have all hands on deck for this game so that we can avoid any potential pitfalls. There were quite a few problem areas that we identified before the break and which we have spoken about and are working on, and we need to build on the win against the Brumbies by beating the Rebels.”

Saturday's clash at Newlands kicks off at 19:10.