Deon Fourie blow compounds Stormers’ La Rochelle disappointment

A potential season-ending knee injury to Stormers star Deon Fourie has compounded their disappointment after they were dumped out of the Champions Cup by double defending champs La Rochelle at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

Fourie’s knee gave out as he attempted to change direction quickly while attempting to make a tackle in the first half of the match, which ended in a 22-21 win for the French giants, with the loose forward immediately looking in pain which necessitated him being driven off the field on a golf cart.

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Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson said after the match that it wasn’t the more serious anterior cruciate ligament injury, but that it may still rule him out of the rest of the campaign: “It could be the (end of his) season.”

Negative impact

If he is ruled out for the rest of the campaign it could negatively impact the Stormers hopes of making another play for the United Rugby Championship (URC) title, with that now their main focus after falling at the Champions Cup last 16 hurdle.

Despite the La Rochelle loss Dobson believes the experience his team gained will be invaluable for them going forward as they try to build into a team that can realistically challenge on both fronts (URC and Champions Cup) in the coming years.

“The more we can play together and get these experiences (the better). We’ve gone toe-to-toe with arguably the best club side in the world, two games in a row. It finished one-one in the series, so we can claim that,” explained Dobson.

“At the moment the Champions Cup is a bonus. We are maybe a year or two off, just in terms of experience. We are definitely not there yet.

“Next week (potential quarterfinal) could have been really tough and it would’ve compromised the (URC) game against Ospreys. To me, this was a bonus. We just wanted it more to show our supporters that we are at the top of club rugby. We aren’t far off the top table.”

Identical finish

In the match it was incredibly an identical finish to their pool match against La Rochelle in December, with the Stormers scoring a try on the fulltime hooter to give them a shot of winning the game.

On that occasion flyhalf Manie Libbok nailed a touchline conversion to send the home supporters wild as they clinched a superb 21-20 win, but this time he had to watch as his kick, against a very difficult wind, drift wide to see the French giants keep their treble hopes alive.

“It was an impossible kick. In those winds, it was impossible. What made me really proud was how they tried to score that try,” said Dobson.

“Damian (Willemse) could’ve scored in the corner, but tried to come in. A lot of teams would have just taken the try.  We didn’t want to score a maul try, even though our maul looked reasonably promising.

“We were playing the champions, completely disrupted with injuries and we were worrying about where we are going to score. That maturity under that pressure.

“Every other team in the world is mauling it. We would normally maul it and ask Manie to kick it. That sort of composure and maturity was really cool.”