Habana to play midfield against Hurricanes
by Gavin Rich 20 February 2012, 17:32
Bryan Habana will start in the DHL Stormers No 13 jersey in Saturday’s opening Vodacom Super Rugby match against the Hurricanes at Newlands.
That much became obvious on Monday as coach Allister Coetzee confirmed that first choice Juan de Jongh “won’t be in the mix” when the team is selected later this week. Habana played outside centre against the Southern Kings in the final warm-up game and was training there again on Monday afternoon.
“The team will only be announced on Wednesday but Juan, although he is making progress, is still feeling a lot of sensitivity to his jaw and won’t be ready to play,” said Coetzee.
“Lock Rynhardt Elstadt, who is also doubtful for the Hurricanes game, is back in training but he can only take 50% of his usual work-load at the moment. We won’t push him if he is not 100 per cent ready to play. It’s a long season that lies ahead of us and it won’t do for us to aggravate an injury and then the player is ruled out for a whole lot longer.”
Apart from De Jongh, the only other Stormers player directly ruled out of the Hurricanes fixture is hooker Deon Fourie, who broke a hand against the Kings.
“Dewaldt Duvenage is back and available for selection so I am pleased to be able to report that we have a squad of mostly fit players who are ready to go. Nick Koster was carrying a slight niggle but he is okay and will be available to play. Duane Vermeulen and Andries Bekker both played against the Kings and came through their comeback games well, so I am happy with where we are at as the season kicks off.”
The shift of Habana to outside centre though is going to provide an interesting test for the player as he will be up against All Black veteran and new Hurricanes captain Conrad Smith. Good though he reportedly was against the Kings, Habana will be the first to admit that Super Rugby provides a different level of challenge.