‘Stormers can play in harmony with gifted Coleman strumming strings’
THEStormers won’t miss a beat with Kurt Coleman strumming the strings against the Sharks at Newlands on Saturday
“Kurt is more than capable,” said Omar Mouneimne, the Sharks defence coach who was a member of the Western Province and Stormers management team between 2008 and 2010.
“I worked with Kurt (at Western Province) and always considered him highly gifted. Unfortunately, injuries have played a part in slowing his progress, but, if he gets front-foot ball, he’s a very dangerous prospect.”
Coleman is set to get a lot more ball in the coming weeks. First-choice Stormers flyhalf Robert du Preez has been booked off for at least six weeks with what is believed to be a gradeone tear of the medial ligament in his left knee suffered during last Saturday’s 20-10 victory over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
“Rob is an X-factor kid who has a good feel for the game,” added Mouneimne. “Kurt is grossly underestimated – he’s a very talented guy with a good running and kicking game. I don’t think they’ve lost anything there.”
The Sharks had to turn the keys over to their back-up flyhalf Joe Pietersen for the season-opener after Pat Lambie was ruled out for two months with a shoulder injury suffered during the pre-season tour to France last month.
Also a former Stormer, Pietersen was the glue that kept a disjointed Sharks team together during a scrappy first-half performance in a 19-15 win against the Jaguares at King’s Park last week.
“Losing Pat obviously wasn’t ideal, but Joe has stepped up well and taken responsibility for controlling the game,” said the Sharks defence coach. “It will be an interesting head-to-head battle between Joe and Kurt.”
That tussle will defer to what is shaping up to be a monolithic showdown between two bristling forward packs. Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit stood back to back in a commanding lineout contesting effort against the Cheetahs last week, and the latter of those two locks will be determined to make a similar impact in his first match against his former team.
“Pieter-Steph is going to want to show us something, we expect him and Eben to be formidable,” said Mouneimne. “Both are considered to be very physical guys and real workhorses and, if you look at the rest of the Stormers tight five, they’ve got a very good bench, with Frans Malherbe and JC Janse van Rensburg who can come on and add just as much punch as what the starters do.
“I coached Vincent Koch at the Pumas during last year’s Currie Cup and he’s an excellent scrummager and very mobile around the park. So they’ve got two layers of tight forwards, and that gives them a double sting.”
The Stormers and Sharks are both unbeaten heading into this coastal derby on the back of unconvincing wins.
“That’s what makes the Stormers such a dangerous side,” added the Sharks defence coach. “It’s a worrying sign for us that they didn’t play their best and they still overran the Cheetahs.
“For us, the Stormers and Lions are the teams to beat in the South African Group, they stand out as front-runners. We know it’s going to be a heck of a challenge going to Newlands in terms of the crowd support they get there, and we’ll need to play a neat game and start strong against the Stormers because they’ll punish us if we’re sloppy.”