Skipper De Villiers’s niggle adds to Stormers’ misery

IT is hard to imagine more controversy and disappointment surrounding the Stormers, but skipper Jean de Villiers has opened up a new wound by suggesting that he is not 100% fit.

De Villiers is struggling with a shoulder niggle, and while it is not enough to rule him out of matches, it is enough for him to openly express that the situation is “not ideal”.

But as the most senior member of the team, having won his 100th Super Rugby cap two weeks ago – and the captain – he is fighting through the pain at a critical time in the Stormers’ season.

As a result, coach Allister Coetzee has not rested De Villiers and will not for the foreseeable future, even though he made seven changes to the squad to face the Reds in Brisbane this weekend.

“It is tough when you have a nig- gle and the team is in a sticky situation,” De Villiers said. “You want to tough it out and keep on playing for the team and keep on fighting for the cause.

“Yes, I have had a bit of niggle, but then again a lot of the guys are playing with niggles. The fact of the matter is we have been depleted by in- juries. The guys are putting their bodies on the line and playing with injuries and I’m definitely not the only one.

“It’s easy to look back on how injuries are handled, but I believe decisions made in the past were made with the best intentions. You don’t know how things would have turned out if things had been done differently.”

The Stormers have lost eight players to lengthy injuries since the start of the campaign — Scarra Ntubeni, Pat Cilliers, Tiaan Liebenberg, De Kock Steenkamp, Ruan Botha, Rynhardt Elstadt, Manuel Carizza and Schalk Burger.