Burger boost for Stormers

The Stormers will enter the final build-up week to the beginning of the Super 14 in a good frame of mind after Schalk Burger was declared fit to lead the side in the competition opener against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The 47-13 win over Boland by what was essentially a Stormers fringe team to open the new Cape Town Stadium to rugby at the weekend completed a perfect warm-up phase to the tournament, but there was the potential for it to be marred by the shoulder injury which forced the captain off after 14 minutes.

Burger got entangled with Boland flyhalf Dean Grant early in the game, and looked uncomfortable after that. He eventually left the field and watched the rest of it from the sidelines, prompting fears that he might not be there for the opener.

However, it has been confirmed that the ailment was just what coach Allister Coetzee described as a slight muscle injury, and Burger will be fit to play in Johannesburg. The other injury sustained by the Stormers against Boland was the fractured elbow that forced centre Paul Bosch off in the second half, but he was never going to be in the team for the Lions match anyway.

Although several of the fringe players did well against Boland, and No 8 Pieter Louw was particularly outstanding, Burger is likely to be one of only two players who played at the Cape Town Stadium who will also feature in the starting team against the Lions.

The other is former Springbok scrumhalf Ricky Januarie, who delivered a busy performance in his first game back on South African soil after his impressive stint with the Ospreys in Wales during the off-season.

The battle between Januarie and the highly promising young Dewaldt Duvenage for the scrumhalf jersey is likely to be a feature of the early season. At this stage it seems Januarie may just be edging it.

“I would rather have Ricky playing for me than against me, and we all know what he can do,” said Coetzee.

“I’ve got 30 players who warrant inclusion in the starting line-up. I’ve got a nice little headache to make sure that I look at the opposition on the day. Different teams will ask different questions of us.

“If you make the sums, you will notice that we played Peter Grant, Juan de Jongh and Jaque Fourie as our inside backs against the Sharks and the Force. It is a good settled combination.”

Also pressing hard for a place though is Lionel Cronje, the under-21 star who moved from the Free State in the off-season but who is already looking like one of Rassie Erasmus’s more astute acquisitions.

This means that Willem de Waal could find himself on the outer for the time being. De Waal played his first match against Boland after recovering from a serious neck operation and although he was solid he looked off the pace required for Super 14 rugby and will require a couple of weeks to get up his momentum.

Possible Stormers team against the Lions: Joe Pietersen, Gio Aplon, Jaque Fourie, Juan de Jongh, Bryan Habana, Peter Grant, Ricky Januarie, Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger (captain), Andries Bekker, De Kock Steenkamp, Brock Harris, Tiaan Liebenberg, Wicus Blaauw.