Stormers feeling the Bok energy

WHILE possibly being without wing Seabelo Senatla for a significant period is a huge blow, the Stormers are confident that they have “a lot of soldiers” who can step in when duty calls.

Senatla suffered a pectoral injury while being cleaned out dangerously by Bundee Aki as the defending champions opened their United Rugby Championship (URC) title defence with a 38-15 victory over Connacht in Stellenbosch at the weekend.

The incident occurred in the second half of the round-two clash, and speaking during a media briefing yesterday, Stormers assistant coach Rito Hlungwani said they are still awaiting medical feedback on Senatla’s injury.

“The only (injury) concern is around Seabelo.

“We have sent him for scans, but we are still waiting,” Hlungwani said.

“We have got quite a few youngsters who can step in.

“(Leolin) Zas trained with us today, but we will see how he goes.

“Suleiman Hartzenberg can also play on the wing.

“We have a few options, but we will see how it goes and make a call tomorrow (today).

“Losing such an experienced player is always a big blow,” he added. “But, there are quite a lot of soldiers who can step up and do the job for us.”

The forwards coach also said that having their Springboks back in the mix following the second-place finish in the Rugby Championship – whether they play against Edinburgh at the Cape Town Stadium (2pm kick-off) this weekend or not – has injected even more energy into the group.

“We have started reintegrating the Boks, but we will see how they go. We will make a decision tomorrow (today),” Hlungwani said.

“It’s always nice to have Springboks back ... even just having them part of training.”

The Scottish side were edged by the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday afternoon, and while they weren’t at their best, the Stormers aren’t seeing that as any reason to get too confident.

“They are a very good outfit and there are quite a number of South Africans in their team,” Hlungwani added.

“They always come out guns blazing at scrum-time, so we are expecting a tough set-piece battle.

“We spoke about how important it is for us to be sharp.

“There sure still are some things we want to improve on, but it was a good start (against Connacht).”