Stormers win comes at a price
INJURIES: KOLISI AMONG THE EARLY SEASON CASUALTIES
Stormers captain Siya Kolisi is unlikely to be available for the Bulls clash at home this weekend, with his team fearing the worst after he picked up a potentially serious knee injury in their cracking 27-0 Super Rugby whitewash against the Hurricanes at Newlands.
Kolisi was seen on crutches after the match at the weekend, which also saw hooker Bongi Mbonambi picking up a serious hamstring injury and flank Jaco Coetzee a groin injury.
It was how the injury to Kolisi happened that left fans furious, however, after Canes hooker
Ricky Ricitelli made a late tackle on the Springbok skipper once Kolisi had already passed the ball.
“It’s a bit sore and it’s apparently an MCL (medial collateral ligament) and now we will have to go and follow procedures and check it out and go for scans to see how serious it is,” Kolisi said.
Though he could spend a few weeks on the sidelines, Kolisi was over the moon with his team’s great start to the competition.
“It was an amazing way to start our season and that’s what we were looking for,” he said.
“We were looking for a win, it didn’t matter how it came. It was just important to start positive.”
The way they controlled the game, according to the skipper, had ensured the Canes couldn’t get going.
“The way our scrum and rolling maul functioned was great and we are not going to hide it. It’s our strength and that’s the way we want it to go for the rest of the season,” Kolisi said.
“We were also happy with the variety we showed and importantly we just want everybody to be comfortable with our plans and systems, and it was good to see it out there.”
Canes skipper TJ Perenara admitted the stats would show they made a lot of handling errors, especially early on in the game, and the Stormers had got on top of them by scoring a couple of intercepts.