Stormers holding thumbs for Etzebeth
ROBBIE Fleck is giving his Stormers talisman Eben Etzebeth every opportunity to prove his fitness for tomorrow’s Super Rugby showdown with the Hurricanes in Wellington.
It has been a see-saw week for the Springbok enforcer. Etzebeth was initially meant to miss the opening tour game due to a head injury sustained against the Jaguares last week before defence coach Norman Laker indicated that he had passed the necessary medical checks upon arrival in New Zealand.
Fleck has thus included the powerful second-rower in the Stormers line-up to run out at the Cake Tin, but could yet have to make a late change.
“He is in the team but unfortunately that is not quite it as far as Eben is concerned for this match because he failed the fifth stage of the concussion protocol today,” Fleck said.
“That means he still has to pass stage five. He has been looking good and has been passing all the stages. We are confident he will play. But if it doesn’t go well for him then we will bump JD (Schickerling) back into the starting team and bring Salmaan Moerat in on the bench.”
With any head injury viewed in a serious manner by authorities these days, Fleck vowed that he would not be taking any chances with Etzebeth.
“Playing him won’t be risky as we have followed all the protocols. Eben is obviously very keen to play. We’d never put any player at risk or anything like that, so we will follow the medical tests. If he is passed to play, then he will start,” he said.
“If he doesn’t play it won’t be too disruptive as we have trained with JD and Salmaan this week. Obviously it was a really short week training-wise, with only two sessions. Eben has been part of those sessions, and the walkthroughs, and so have the other players. It has been a great training week for us. Apart from Eben, everything has gone according to plan.”
Unlike his Hurricanes counterpart John Plumtree, who made 10 changes to their team for the encounter, Fleck was more settled in his selection. He made just three changes to the team that clinched a bonus-point victory at Newlands last week with Schickerling, Scarra Ntubeni and Dan du Plessis dropping to the bench. Chris van Zyl, Bongi Mbonambi and Ruhan Nel have all been drafted into the starting side.
Damian Willemse, though, remains on the bench and Fleck is hoping the skilful utility back can produce a similarly impactful performance when does run on in the same way he did against the Jaguares.
“I thought Damian was outstanding off the bench last week and he made a big impact, he is back to his best. In fact I thought the whole bench played well, and we do have a strong