'Shadow' a strong Stormers option
by Gavin Rich 02 February 2012, 08:42
Known to his teammates as Shadow, the DHL Stormers’ new recruit Gerhard van den Heever will be looking to make his presence felt when he lines up at fullback in the DHL Pre-Season Series match against the Toyota Cheetahs at Newlands on Saturday.
There seems to have been some surprise among the Cape media that Allister Coetzee has chosen the former Blue Bulls player in the last line of defence, but even when the announcement was made in late October last year that Van den Heever would be moving to Cape Town, the then Western Province senior professional coach Rassie Erasmus referred to his potential as a fullback.
“He may not have played that many games at fullback for the Bulls but he played his entire school rugby career at fullback,” said Coetzee.
“We are looking at him as a fullback option. We do have Joe Pietersen and we know that Gio Aplon can play there, but there are times when the Cape weather dictates your selection and a wet day will require us to have a big and strong guy at fullback. Gerhard has those attributes.”
After Springbok Aplon scored two tries against the Lions last week there have been renewed calls for Coetzee to consider him as a No 15 rather than a wing because of a perception that he is more dangerous on the counter-attack when at fullback. Although chosen as a wing for the Lions match, it was after moving to fullback when Van den Heever came on as a wing that Aplon scored his tries, one of them a brilliant solo effort.
But there are defensive issues which prompt the Stormers management to stick with Aplon at wing, and Coetzee has made the point that the positions are interchangeable during the course of play depending on situation and field position.
Van den Heever has impressed in his two appearances for the Stormers so far, and was instrumental in the creation of Aplon’s second try against the Lions as he surged down the right flank off a Jean de Villiers pass before transferring inside to his teammate.
WP took some flak for letting JJ Engelbrecht leave for the Bulls last year but so far Van den Heever has shown that he has the capability to offset that loss.
The Stormers certainly do still have plenty of back-three options, and on Saturday Danie Poolman and Ederies Arendse, who has been drafted into the Stormers training group from club level, will get a chance to further build on impressive performances against the Boland Cavaliers two weeks ago.
The match is not televised and kicks off at 5pm )SA, CAT, GMT+2) with tickets going at R40 for adults for all seating, R20 in the Danie Craven standing area and R10 in the scholars' enclosure.