Du Plessis injury worry for eight-try Stormers
Stormers coach Robbie Fleck will be sweating on the fitness of flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis for next week’s Super Rugby playoff against the Chiefs at Newlands.
|||Stormers coach Robbie Fleck will be sweating on the fitness of flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis for next week’s Super Rugby playoff against the Chiefs at Newlands.
Du Plessis picked up what appeared to be an ankle injury in the Cape side’s comprehensive 52-24 victory over the Southern Kings on Saturday night that reinforced their status as Africa Conference 1 winners and playoff qualifiers in third position on the overall log.
Outside centre Huw Jones scored a Super Rugby record-equalling four tries and left wing Leolin Zas grabbed a hat trick in the eight-try romp.
But the Stormers’ chief playmaker Du Plessis hobbled off just before halftime against the Kings after staying down inside the opposition’s 22-metre area. He initially received some treatment, but needed assistance from the medical staff to leave the field.
Du Plessis looked to be in considerable pain, and was replaced by Brandon Thomson for the rest of the match.
To make matters worse, right wing Kobus van Wyk also went off in the first half with an unspecified injury, with Scott van Breda coming on as a substitute.
But apart from the injury dilemmas, the Stormers produced a satisfactory display to put the Kings away on a chilly evening at Newlands. And the highlight was the performance of centre pair Damian de Allende and Huw Jones.
De Allende has battled to regain his spark since picking up an ankle injury in Japan in December, but that old swagger with ball-in-hand was back with the big Springbok No 12. He threatened the Kings defence by mixing up those direct runs with smart stepping, while he also tried to keep the ball alive instead of just going to ground to set up a ruck.
This approach was best exemplified with Jones’ third try early in the second half as De Allende poetically drew two defenders and offloaded in the tackle to put the Scottish international away in the corner.
Man-of-the-match Jones was terrific as he cut the Kings defence to shreds. He has had to wait for a proper opportunity in the Stormers starting line-up this year as Fleck stuck with Johnny Kotze earlier in the season, but Jones showed what the backline has been missing with blinding pace in the outside channel.
Yes, it was only the lowly Kings, but De Allende and Jones will take great heart out of the performance before coming up against a star-studded Chiefs back division next weekend.
One area of concern for the Stormers was the lineout, where hooker Scarra Ntubeni struggled to find his jumpers. But a late change before kickoff saw Chris van Zyl make his Super Rugby debut as JD Schickerling had flu, and the fact that Springboks Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit were rested may also have contributed to the lineout issues.
The Stormers ended strongly as Jones’ fourth touchdown brought up 50 points for the home side, with the Kings running in two consolation tries in the last few minutes.
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@ashfakmohamed
POINTS-SCORERS
Stormers – Tries: Huw Jones (4), Leolin Zas (3), Brandon Thomson. Conversions: Jean-Luc du Plessis (3), Thomson (3).
Southern Kings – Tries: Malcolm Jaer, Wandile Mjekevu, Stefan Watermeyer. Conversions: Dewald Human (1), Elgar Watts (1), Watermeyer (1). Penalties: Human (1).