The Stormers could have JD Schickerling back from injury to partner Ruben van Heerden, who will celebrate his 50th cap on Saturday, for their vital United Rugby Championship match against Connacht in Cape Town.
The second-row pair were a formidable combination until Schickerling crocked his shoulder two months ago, but assistant coach Norman Laker says the powerful lock has trained without any issues this week, and will be considered for selection.
One of Schickerling’s strengths is running the lineout and given the Stormers have been shaky in this area of late, the 29-year-old’s return is significant.
“JD is training fully at the moment. So far so good,” Laker said, before delivering not-so-good news on flyhalf Manie Libbok and wing Seabelo Senatla.
“Manie’s not back yet, and Senatla has unfortunately been sick this week,” the defence coach said. “We first have to see what he’s like on Tuesday when he comes in. He can’t train fully, he’s just sick.
Laker confirmed that lock Adre Smith is some way from completing his loan season in Japan while Springbok loose forward Ben-Jason Dixon has not recovered from his wrist injury.
“Adre is six months straight in Japan. Ben-Jason is still out for a while," Laker said.
This would suggest the pair are unlikely to play in the Stormers’ four remaining URC league games, all of which are in Cape Town. The 10th placed Stormers are just one point out of the top eight and have everything to play for.
Former Sharks lock Van Heerden was to the point on what the Stormers must do.
“It’s not a time to look at personal accolades,” he said of his imminent 50th cap.
“It’s special playing 50 games for the Stormers, but by no means do I want to make it about me,” said the humble product of Affies in Pretoria. The position we’re in, much like Connacht (in 13th place), is that we are trying to fight our way into the top eight.
“We’re under no illusions that Connacht is going to come out firing and it’s going to be a very tough game on Saturday.
“I think the overall feeling in the group is that we know that we are a good team, and we know exactly what we are capable of doing. We also have some perspective around games that we narrowly lost this season.
“If things had just worked out slightly differently, the log would have looked a lot different,” Van Heerden explained.
“We can’t change what happened, but we have only four games left and we’re looking forward to what we can achieve in those games. We know exactly what we need to do. We need maximum points out of the next four games and we’re essentially playing knockout rugby. The desire is always there – no one wants to lose, trust me.”
The Stormers host Benetton next week, followed by the Dragons and finish against the Scarlets.