Dobson explains why Gelant will stay on Stormers bench for now

Despite Warrick Gelant’s match-defining heroics in their come-from-behind win over the Bulls last weekend, Stormers coach John Dobson said he will be backing Damian Willemse to continue in the fullback role over Gelant for the coming few games.

This includes this weekend’s United Rugby Championship encounter against the Sharks in Durban on Saturday.

Willemse enjoyed a solid performance against the Bulls last weekend and didn’t do anything wrong, but it was Gelant’s scene-stealing performance off the bench that grabbed the headlines.

Dobson, however, explained that the team currently has a plan in place which they will follow to the end.

“People will say Warrick was good when he came on, why isn’t he starting? The obvious answer is that is the plan that we’ve got,” said Dobson.

“Having said that, I think Damian Willemse’s general game was absolutely magnificent. The way we dominated the backfield was really good for us.

“The second thing is, the role for Warrick last week as an impact player was to open things up, and it went absolutely according to plan.

“The plan doesn’t change because Warrick made those two magic passes. I think it was right and we committed to it and are comfortable with what we will do this weekend in that respect.”

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The Stormers will need to get over the loss of co-captain Salmaan Moerat who has been ruled out for the foreseeable future with an MCL knee injury and will play no part in the rest of the local URC derbies.

But they have more than enough back up with the impressive Adre Smith set to come straight into the side to replace Moerat.

“Salmaan will be sidelined for an extended period of at least six weeks. At worst it is a grade two (injury),” said Dobson.

“In some way we are quite blessed. Adre Smith is a very similar player to Salmaan, both are capable of calling line-outs, and also big movers. They can steal and carry well.

“They love cleaning rucks, so it’s a like-for-like switch. I am very excited for Adre, that he gets this opportunity, because we think he is going to be a special player.”