Nama Xaba will make just his fourth start of the season as the DHL Stormers have sought a like-for-like replacement for the injured Deon Fourie against Ospreys on Saturday.

The DHL Stormers had a number of options to consider for replacing Fourie, who has been ruled out for the season after undergoing surgery on a knee ligament injury he suffered in the Champions Cup playoff against La Rochelle.

Willie Engelbrecht, Marcel Theunissen and Junior Pokomela offer physical and dynamic options at No 6. The Stormers could also experiment with Evan Roos at openside and bring Hacjivah Dayimani back into the starting lineup at No 8.

However, Xaba, the closest in style to Fourie, has got the nod for Saturday night’s Vodacom URC match. It will be the 26-year-old’s fourth start of the season as he had fought his own injury battles.

“Nama comes in at openside flank,” assistant coach Rito Hlungwani said. “With Deon’s injury, it’s extremely important to have another number six, who can perform that fetcher role. Nama has done that really well in the past couple of years.

“Injuries have slowed him down, but we felt this is a good time to select him and see if he can start picking up some form.”

The DHL Stormers have made nine changes to the starting lineup that faced La Rochelle, with experienced tighthead prop Frans Malherbe leading the team in the absence of Salmaan Moerat, who continues his recovery from concussion.

“It’s with the mindset of trying to build a very strong squad,” Hlungwani explained.

“It’s extremely important. It would be wrong of us to leave guys out and then when we get an injury in the playoffs, expect those guys to just perform at a high level. We have to keep them sharp.

“We haven’t changed our whole team, just certain strategic positions. The guys who have come in, we back them to do the job.

“Ospreys deserve all the respect. They are only two points behind us. Our big focus this week is to go hard and put out a team that can perform against Ospreys. We haven’t spoken about next week’s game against Leinster at all.”

Malherbe emphasised that with so little separating the URC playoff contenders, the Stormers cannot afford to take their eyes away from Ospreys.

“Everybody is so close together. There are only five points between us in fifth and 11th place. Ospreys are part of those teams that are bunched together.

“It’s incredibly important that, as coach Rito said, our whole focus over the last two weeks has been on Ospreys.”

Photo: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans/Shutterstock/BackpagePix 

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Src: sarugbymag.co.za