Youthful Stormers to face their mates

The Stormers have announced two youthful-looking playing squads – packed with Varsity Cup players – for Saturday’s pre-season matches against FNB Maties and FNB UCT in Riebeek West reports varsitycup.co.za

Bax, Sadie and Groom – the latter being named as captain – will all play against the Maties at 9am (as opposed to the initial kick-off time of 9.30am), whilst Brache, Poolman, Whitehead, Bosch, Engelbrecht, Daniller and Mxunyelwa will line up against UCT at 11am.

New UCT players Nizaam Carr, Siya Kolisi, Quinn Roux, Eben Etzebeth and Siyabonga Ntubeni – all of whom are yet to play Varsity Cup rugby, but could feature this coming season – will also be turning out for the Stormers. Flanker Carr and lock Etzebeth will face up to the Maties, whilst flanker Kolisi, lock Roux and hooker Ntubeni will go up against their Ikey teammates.

Speaking about the prospect of coming up against his fellow Ikey Tigers on Saturday, Marcel Brache – who will line up at fullback – said: “It will be weird, of course, but I’m really looking forward to the opportunity and I know the UCT guys are well up for the game!”

Another interesting selection in the Stormers team – to play against the Maties – is that of former NWU-Pukke captain Willem van der Wal, who will be playing at No.8 in the 9am match.

Van der Wal, who captained Pukke to the Varsity Cup Final in 2009, played some club rugby in Johannesburg last season but has now joined up with his old university coach, Matthew Proudfoot in Cape Town.

Stormers team (v Maties): 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Tiger Bax, 13 Johann Sadie, 12 Burton Klaassens, 11 Bom Samaai, 10 Gary van Aswegen, 9 Nic Groom (captain), 8 Willem van der Wal, 7 Reuben Johannes, 6 Nizaam Carr, 5 Wilhelm van der Sluys, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Tom Botha, 2 Sidney Tobias, 1 Steven Kitshoff.
Replacements: 16 Albe de Swardt, 17 Rohan Kitshoff, 18 Helmut Lehmann, 19 Louis Schreuder, 20 Elgar Watts, 21 Clearance Khumalo, 22 Michael van der Spuy.

Kick-off: 9am

Stormers team (v UCT): 15 Marcel Brache, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 Tim Whitehead, 12 Paul Bosch, 11 JJ Engelbrecht, 10 Lionel Cronjé, 9 Bolla Conradie, 8 Tertius Daniller, 7 Siya Kolisi, 6 Wimpie van der Waldt, 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Buhle Mxunyelwa, 2 Siyabonga Ntubeni, 1 JD Möller.
Replacements: 16 Albe de Swardt, 17 Rohan Kitshoff, 18 Helmut Lehmann, 19 Louis Schreuder, 20 Elgar Watts, 21 Clearance Khumalo, 22 Michael van der Spuy.