Stormers ‘toy with Willemse’ at flyhalf

STORMERS assistant coach Labeeb Levy says they are trying different options at flyhalf ahead of their Rainbow Cup crunch match against the Bulls at Loftus on Friday (7pm kickoff).

Abner van Reenen has been the starting No 10 since Kade Wolhuter suffered a season-ending injury in the opening round.

The 22-year-old has struggled in certain games since taking over from Wolhuter, and hasn’t managed to produce the kind of excellence he displayed in his first start for the Stormers in their 44-12 demolition of the Lions in their final Preparation Series game.

In that outing, Van Reenen’s game management was a show to behold, so too his kicking from the tee. The only blotch on his performance was a yellow card towards the end of the game.

In the last two games, Tim Swiel has slotted late match-clinchers as a replacement, and Levy went on to explain that he – as well as Damian Willemse, who has been doing duty at No 15 – have also had a run at 10 during training this week.

“We have been toying with flyhalf. Abner has been running there, and Damian has also got an opportunity. Anything can happen. Sometimes we just get carried away with the starting guys, but we have also toyed with Damian at No 10 in the event that we need to use him there,” Levy said.

“Tim Swiel is still a point of discussion, but he also had an opportunity during training.”

With the 45-man Springbok squad being named on Saturday, the focus will naturally start shifting to the announcement and what the group could look like. But with two games left and a chance to still make the Rainbow Cup final, Levy insisted that Stormers are focused.

“We chat to the players individually, but to think of it, they are pretty focused themselves,” he said. “They know they need to put in the training. It probably is in the back of their minds (the Boks) – knowing that they need to perform to be on the Springbok radar – but I haven’t seen that selfishness. They know they have to do well in these last two weeks.

“We know we still have an outside chance, of reaching the final, but that hasn’t been our only focus – we want to improve. We have had a nice upward curve ...”