John Dobson says he’s “lost no sleep” over the raft of injuries in the Stormers camp leading up to the derby against the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday. DYLAN JACK reports.
Muscle tissue injuries to Warrick Gelant and Herschel Jantjies have left the Stormers missing a spine of players for the clash at DHL Stadium.
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Also currently sidelined are Evan Roos, Salmaan Moerat, Dan du Plessis, Frans Malherbe, Lizo Gqoboka, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and Ben Loader, while speedster Angelo Davids is working his way back to full fitness.
However, while a medical room packed with quality players would make any head coach sweat, Dobson cut a relaxed figure ahead of one of the biggest games of the Stormers’ campaign.
There is good reason for Dobson’s confidence, still being able to name a strong matchday-23, featuring three World Cup winners, for the derby.
“The one thing we spent last season doing was trying to build our depth, expand the size of our squad and prove that the first year wasn’t a Cinderella thing,” Dobson said. “To be honest, if this was two years ago, we would be a lot more tense and worried.
“We have such faith in the guys coming in, that we’ve built this squad. We are, by nature, a resilient team. We fight and you will see that tomorrow. We are not going away. The way the team has handled everything, we are resilient.
“We will fight. That is in the DNA of this team. I actually haven’t lost any sleep over it. We have good plans and good players coming in. That’s because of the work we put in last season.
“I am very confident in the team we are putting out. I am not really stressed that so-and-so is not playing.”
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