Ruhan Nel has been granted family-responsibility leave by the Stormers management. FILE - Ruhan Nel has been granted family-responsibility leave by the Stormers management. Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix
Cape Town — A new-look Stormers centre pairing will square off with Leinster’s midfielders as former Blitzbok and one of the Cape side’s stars this season, outside centre Ruhan Nel, will stay behind in South Africa as he awaits the birth of his first child.
Nel has been granted family-responsibility leave by the Stormers management while he and his wife, Marle, expect the imminent birth of their daughter.
This is the reason why Nel played for Western Province on Friday against the Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup. And as a senior, he played an important role in the North-South derby victory.
“His wife is having a baby so we are giving him off this week,” Stormers coach John Dobson explained the absence of Nel in the touring squad for Leinster.
This means Dan du Plessis will have a new partner in midfield for this important clash, which could see the Stormers keep the second place on the standings if they can pull off a win.
Dobson has a couple of options at his disposal to partner Du Plessis, which includes two youngsters who can slot in midfield.
Both Suleiman Hartzenberg and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu have played alongside Du Plessis, but certain changes could affect the team composition.
If Dobson decides to bring in Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Du Plessis will have to shift to outside centre. The latter has been phenomenal in the No 12 jersey this season and this is without a doubt his best position.
Hartzenberg can fulfil the role of outside centre, but he has been more effective on the wing. And with the Stormers having a bit of a wing crisis due to injuries, Hartzenberg could stay out wide.
The other possible solution is to bring in Damian Willemse at inside centre, a spot he has occupied with success before - especially during the Stormers’ URC title-winning campaign last season.
But it's his first match back after Springbok training duty and with the World Cup in mind, he will want to play as many games at fullback where he will primarily run out for the national team.
Dobson confirmed all of his Boks will be running out against the Irish team this Friday.
“If we think romantically, we could try and beat Leinster. But the truth is, those guys (the Boks) haven’t played for almost two months,” Dobson said.
“So, it's more a game of us getting ready for Harlequins (in the Champions Cup next weekend) which is a great occasion. Whether we can go further in the European Cup, I don’t know. But we will hopefully have 50 000 people at Cape Town Stadium for our first home European knockout match and it will be very special for us.
“We offered the Springboks the choice of going to Durban to rather use the Currie Cup to get ready, but they said they really want to get integrated and they want to go to Leinster, which is great.
“I do suspect we will be a bit rusty. We will run in the red this week, but hopefully it will get us ready for Harlequins and Munster.
“We do not have a home URC semi-final yet, we have to win two of our last three games. But if we can pick up one or two points against Leinster, it will certainly help us.”
IOL Sport