John Dobson has confirmed that Evan Roos is close to returning as the DHL Stormers turn their focus to the Vodacom United Rugby Championship. DYLAN JACK reports.
Having suffered a Champions Cup quarter-final exit in Exeter on Saturday night, the Stormers will return to Cape Town this week, looking to finish the round-robin stage of the URC on a high with two games at home.
First up is Munster on 14 April and Dobson revealed after the Exeter reverse that the Stormers will be boosted by two influential injury returns for the run-in.
Roos has not played since suffering a medial cruciate ligament injury in the January clash against Ulster in Belfast. However, the Springbok No 8’s knee has healed quite well and after recently returning to training, he could make his comeback from the bench against Munster.
“It’s definitely too soon [to start]. He could come off the bench or play in the Currie Cup,” Dobson said when asked for an update on Roos’ progress.
“I changed those two loose forwards at half time [against Exeter]. It’s something I don’t like doing generally. If, in these conditions, you put a Deon Fourie to slow down ball and an Evan Roos to give us physicality around the gainline, we could have looked slightly different.”
Last season’s top try-scorer, Leolin Zas is also close to returning to boost the Stormers’ outside backs.
“Evan will be back next week. That’s really important to us as we go into the sharp end of the competition. Probably two of our biggest gamebreakers from last season were Zas and Evan. Having them back for the next few weeks will be good for us.”
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