Stormers hammered by injuries

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck had a few last-minute injuries to contend with when selecting his team to face the Bulls in their Super Rugby opener at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday.

As expected, Bok loosehead Steven Kitshoff has been ruled out with a grade-two hamstring tear‚ which will keep him on the sidelines for four to six weeks.

Exciting loose forward Juarno Augustus suffered an ankle injury at training this week‚ which will rule him out for seven to 10 days. Bok veteran Frans Malherbe will also miss out because of bruising on the knee.

Wing Sergeal Petersen also had not made enough progress from a foot injury to be considered while lock Eben Etzebeth has a back injury.

Despite all the injuries, Fleck was able to pick nine capped Boks in his starting lineup‚ including skipper Siya Kolisi‚ who only played 40 minutes during the preseason.

“The hope is that Steven Kitshoff will be back for our tour [in four weeks].

“Up until this week we were looking good on the injury front, ” Fleck said.

“We had these few setbacks in the last couple of days‚ but luckily most aren’t serious, barring Kitsie‚ so it’s not too bad.”

Damian Willemse will start at flyhalf even though Fleck admitted that the Bok was also in the Stormers’ plans as a fullback with Jean-Luc du Plessis on the bench.

Fleck also picked inexperienced Salmaan Moerat at lock with Kobus van Dyk on the bench because of the threat the Bulls lineout poses with Duane Vermeulen and Lood de Jager in particular marshalling the set piece. –