Springbok to ease Stormers’ injury crisis for URC quarter-final clash

The Stormers are set to receive a boost ahead of their United Rugby Championship quarter-final with Glasgow Warriors after it was confirmed that Warrick Gelant has been ruled fit for the clash.

The Warriors are set to host the men from the Cape at Scotstoun on Saturday evening and Gelant is set to return to the starting line-up where he will line up at full-back.

Back to full fitness

The 29-year-old, who was part of the Springboks squad when they won the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, missed his team’s 29-24 victory over the Lions in Cape Town last week, due to a niggling injury, but Stormers director of rugby John Dobson said he is ready to face Glasgow Warriors.

Gelant‘s return means that the precociously-talented Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who shone at full-back for the Stormers in the win over the Lions, will have to move to another position or be dropped to the replacements bench.

“It will be good to have Warrick back, as he has been in great form recently. Sacha will move forward, be it into the midfield at number 12, or onto the bench. The team will be announced on Friday,” said Dobson.

The Stormers are without the services of Springbok utility back Damian Willemse, after he injured a finger in their win over Connacht in Round 17, but Dobson revealed that another backline star, speedster Leolin Zas, is also close to full fitness after sustaining a knee injury in the Investec Champions Cup round-of-16 loss to La Rochelle.

“Zassy will be ready for the semi-final if we get there,” he said.

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Meanwhile, the Stormers are quietly confident of getting the better of the Warriors despite suffering a 20-9 defeat when the sides met at the same venue in a Round Three URC league clash in November.

“We are looking forward to going there at this time of the year, we know the Scotstoun should be quite different in June to what it is in November and January, which is when we have played them before,” said Dobson.

“It is a fair match up this one, it is fourth against fifth, and as those positions will indicate, we are two quite evenly matched teams. We are probably where we both deserve to be, fourth against fifth. It is not like No 1 against No 8, where there is big pressure and expectation on the top-ranked team, who are expected to win.

‘Unfinished business’

“We have unfinished business up there. We have had two really tough games there where things haven’t gone our way. Glasgow play a really nice style of rugby. But we are well prepared for it.

“Basically, after we lost at home to the Ospreys we knew we would be traveling for this stage of the competition, and we prepared accordingly. A lot of focus on our recent two-match overseas tour was on what is to come now.

“As I said on Saturday night, it is an important part of our growth to be playing in an away play-off game.”

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