Dobson tweaks his Stormers

ROTATION: FORWARDS LOUW AND VAN ZYL GET A START

Despite being locked on a rollercoaster ride, Stormers coach John Dobson couldn’t resist the temptation to tweak his winning combination for tomorrow’s crunch Super Rugby clash against the Blues at Newlands.

The Stormers have won all four of their matches thus far in the competition, though there have been question marks raised about the hesitant performances of Damian Willemse at flyhalf.

Dobson made two rotational changes yesterday to the side which ground out a 17-7 win against the Jaguares last week, with prop Frans Malherbe and lock Salmaan Moerat rotated to the bench to allow Wilco Louw and Chris van Zyl starting opportunities.

There were two further changes to the replacements bench, with prop Kwenzo Blose expected to make his Stormers debut and utility forward Cobus Wiese back in the match-day squad.

Dobson said his team looked forward to a blockbuster clash at Newlands.

“This game has all the makings of a classic South African-New Zealand battle, in front of the Newlands faithful,” he said.

“With our bye coming up next week we are going to pour absolutely everything into getting the result and making it five consecutive wins.”

The Stormers had conceded just five tries in four matches, with four of those coming in an away game against the Lions, while they had scored 12 themselves.

“We have made some rotational changes up front, but otherwise we have managed to keep some good continuity as we look to keep building and raising our standards,” Dobson said.

The Stormers continued with their policy of selecting six forwards and only two backs on the bench, with scrumhalf Godlen Masimla and flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis being the two backs.