Injury setback for Stormers before final

The Stormers have suffered a blow ahead of their United Rugby Championship (URC) final against Munster in Cape Town on Saturday.

Utility back Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who played off the bench for the Stormers in their semifinal win over Connacht, has a serious hand injury. Coach John Dobson says he fears that Feinberg-Mngomezulu may have broken his hand.

“It doesn’t look very good,” he said. “It might be a fracture and he was probably going to be involved against Munster so that’s a bit of a blow.”

Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who covers flyhalf, centre and fullback, was injured during Western Province’s Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Friday. “He needed to play against the Pumas, and we are not beating ourselves up over the decision to play him. Sacha didn’t play much last week. I think it was like six or seven minutes, so we needed to play him.”

Dobson said Cape Town’s passion for the Stormers was evident in that tickets for the final sold out in less than three hours.

“We know what rugby in the Western Cape looks like and what it means to the people,” he said. “This team belongs to people across every demographic and LSM.

“We are trying to build a special rugby place here. If we get it right with our pathways, with the passion we have as the bestsupported team, we can make something very special here.

“We sat down after Covid and thought about what we were trying to do with the Stormers. Last year it was ‘Get Cape Town smiling’ because it was a start. This year it was a bit more emphatic to ‘Make Cape Town smile’,” he said.

“Our project is to restore the Stormers to the full pride, to fill the Cape Town Stadium up seven or eight times a year.

“We didn’t expect to be getting 45,000 fans for consecutive games, including a game against Connacht who are not the most known team.

“We have probably got there a little faster than we expected with these back-to-back finals.”

Munster will arrive in Cape Town with a strong belief they can topple the Stormers in their own backyard, says coach Graham Rowntree. “We go down to Cape Town with belief,” he said.

“This group don’t give in, and we have come through some fires in the last few weeks.

“Cape Town will be our sixth away game on the bounce, and that’s when we are finding out about people.

“We are tough, battle-hardened, so I was never hopeless. This team don’t go away.”