The Stormers have suffered a major injury blow with a Major springbok star ruled out of Rugby following their 34-0 rout of the Scarlets in Lllanelli on Friday night.
The Stormers have suffered a major injury blow following their 34-0 rout of the Scarlets in Lllanelli on Friday night
CoachJohn Dobson confirmed that veteran Springbok flank Deon Fourie suffered a serious arm injury which is likely to keep him out of rugby for a lengthy period.
“Deon’s devastated,” Dobson said after the match. “A lot of tears in the change room, Deon was in tears.
It’s a serious bicep injury that will require surgery, so he’ll go home.
“It’s an emotional change room – as much as the win is pleasing, it shows how tight this team is that they’re so upset about Deon.”
Fourie had just returned to action from a leg injury that kept him out of rugby since April, and only been on the field for a few minutes as a replacement when the injury occured.
Dobson also confirmed that tighthead prop Sazi Sandi also faces time on the sidelines.
“Sazi will get scanned and we’ll see where he stands, but for now he’s out. That’s three really good tightheads in Frans [Malherbe], Neethling [Fouche] and Sazi unavailable and I don’t think any team can cater for that in their roster.
“But luckily we’ve got a great scrum culture and guys like Zach Porthen is coming through, we’ve got Hencus van Wyk, Corne Welbach, Oli Kebble can swing, so we should be able to keep our scrum culture going.”
The Stormers remain unbeaten after the opening three rounds, having blanked their opposition twice.
The team now travels to Italy to take on Zebre and Benetton.
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The Stormers’ dominance up front and accuracy under the high ball left the Scarlets struggling to gain a foothold. Peel credited the South Africans’ set-piece strength and breakdown power for setting the benchmark in the competition.
“I thought the Stormers were excellent. Their set-piece work was exceptional, as good as I’ve seen with that power. Their maul and scrum put us under a lot of pressure; they went to the air a lot, contradictory to what you normally see from the Stormers, and their physicality around our breakdown was also very good.
