Stormers remove two World Cup-winning Boks from Champions Cup squad
The Stormers have removed the injured duo of Steven Kitshoff and Damian Willemse from their Investec Champions Cup squad just days before their campaign gets underway.
The double World Cup-winning loosehead prop recently underwent neck fusion surgery, while Willemse is suffering from a groin injury in a year where he has been beset by issues.
Kitshoff was recently a guest on RugbyPass TV's Boks Office, where he detailed the severity of his injury and the surgery, saying: “It’s a bit of a stressful one because it’s such a high area of my neck – C1 and C2 – which is a bit of an issue."
The 32-year-old recently revealed on social media that he was "thrilled to share that my operation was a big success,” but added that it will be a "long recovery journey," which explains why he will be unavailable this weekend and beyond for the Stormers.
The pair have been deregistered for the opening round of the competition, against Toulon on Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, with two additional players being added.
Zachary Porthen has been called up in Kitshoff's place, while Willemse has been replaced by Jonathan Roche.
Saracens have been forced into the same move ahead of their match against the Bulls, with second-row academy graduate Charlie Barker being replaced by Tiff Eden.
Only one other Champions Cup outfit has opted to alter their squad, with Leicester Tigers deregistering back-row Joshua Manz in order for Cameron Miell to join the squad for their trip to face Bordeaux-Begles.
Edinburgh have been forced into two squad changes ahead of their Challenge Cup meeting with Gloucester, with Scotland centre Mark Bennett and flanker Connor Boyle out. Euan McVie and Tom Currie will step in in their place.
The final squad change comes from France, where Perpignan have called up back-row Andro Dvali for Alan Brazo.
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All sports have uncontrollable variables which can change the course of games.
You have to plan to limit the amount of “luck” required to win closely contested games but even more importantly recognise those moments when they inevitably happen and be able to adjust in real time.
So, to your point, I’m sure Rassie wouldn’t have planned to lose to the ABs in the group stage but his ability to keep the squad motivated and believing they could still go on and win the WC (even though never done before) instilled a character and belief in the players, even in the face of adversity, that can’t be ignored.
Invincibility is a mind set. An idea that when a team goes onto the pitch in any game, they’re thinking “we’ll win.” You could see this in the Arsenal invincible team where players stood in the tunnel waiting to go on to the pitch, looked at their team mates and thought “yeah, we’ve got this.” (Even they got “lucky” against Portsmouth)
If you plan to limit the variables (something Russie does exceptionally well) and luck is on your side you win three in a row by one point. When you plan to limit the variables and luck swings to the other side you lose two games by 1 point each (Ireland and Argentina)
The top end of world rugby is probably the most competitive we’ve ever seen, South Africa, New Zealand, France and Ireland all playing exceptional rugby. Even teams like England, Argentina and the Aussies, despite their inconsistency, have shown they can still win playing classy rugby against the current top four squads.
In such a competitive climate, Rassie has used some old tricks, some new (you show me an international match where a winger has taken a line out throw) in the modern game to keep opponents thinking, adjusting styles (2019 - 2024) but also in the background planned and trained the basics.
Mostly though, yip, every single team faces uncontrollable variables but Rassie has built the character and belief in every player in that squad to think that no matter what, “we can win.” The instilled belief of being unbeatable. No one else is managing that at the moment.
Simple man management is often the hardest task of all (even more so with 51 caps)
Genius (whom I to say), but I think it’s a smidgen disingenuous to write that off as myth.
Go to commentsAllBlacks could have should have but Boks did have.
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