Stormers coach John Dobson seems to have painted himself into an interesting corner because of the form of a Durban prop that is likely to make way for another Durban prop.
The Durban dilemma for Dobson is that he has signed Springbok looshead Ntuthuko Mchunu from the Sharks, the Maritzburg College old boy, only to have given a spectacular weekend URC debut to Vernon Matongo, a Durbanite himself
Matongo was excellent for the Stormers in their defeat of the Dragons at the weekend. The pizzazz was all about Damian Willemse’s 100th cap, but there were sideshows from openside flank Paul de Villiers Durban schoolboy Matongo.
The former Northwood schoolboy forced several scrum penalties to indicate that he is not going to give in to Mchunu when swaps Durban for Cape Town at the end of this season. Dobson believes Matongo and De Villiers are “going to be huge”.
“I would love to take credit for it, but I can’t, as the truth is that we have been helped by the injuries in that I have been taught a valuable lesson,” said Dobson.
“Had Deon (Fourie) not been injured I would probably have carried on playing him and we would not have got to see Paul get his opportunity. I always knew Paul was a star for the future and very capable, but I wasn’t going to back him just yet.
“Now that he has got to play he has shown he is more than ready and more than good enough.
“The way players such as Paul and Vernon have progressed is a big plus that we are getting out of these last few weeks of the season. The depth has been grown, but as I say, sometimes that has been by accident rather than necessarily by design.”
Dobson added that he was pleased with the physicality of his players but unsure what to make of the weekend results that indicate that his team is not going to Durban for the quarter-finals.
“We pretty much thought that we were going to go to Durban the whole time,” said Dobson.
“That looks increasingly unlikely, especially when you see the team Leinster put out tonight. They’re going to go full strength next week against Glasgow, we expect them to win that game, which would mean we go to Scotstoun.”
Why the Stormers would prefer Durban has more to do than just the travel -— the Scotstoun is not a stadium the Stormers have a good record at.
“Last year, Glasgow were at their full pomp, and I know we lost that quarterfinal by 10-plus at the end, but we were in it until quite late in the game. So if we have to go that way, we will go that way,” said Dobson.
“If things go wrong next Friday against Cardiff, we’ll have to go to Kings Park.
“I wouldn’t complain if we had to go to Pretoria to face the Bulls either. But we would never jerry-rig a game; we play on a Friday night, so we have to wrap our heads around going to Scotstoun.
