Stormers lock Etzebeth ruled out of Hurricanes clash

22 March 2019 - 11:36 By Craig Ray‚ Cape Town
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Eben Etzebeth of the Stormers during round 5 of the Super Rugby match between DHL Stormers and Jaguares at DHL Newlands on March 15, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Eben Etzebeth of the Stormers during round 5 of the Super Rugby match between DHL Stormers and Jaguares at DHL Newlands on March 15, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Image: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images

Lock Eben Etzebeth has been withdrawn from the Stormers team to play against the Hurricanes on Saturday after failing the last stage of his concussion protocols.

Etzebeth suffered concussion during last week’s 35-8 win over the Jaguares at Newlands.

The experienced second-rower was named in the Stormers; starting line-up on Thursday‚ after passing a number of standard tests in the week‚ but has subsequently been ruled out.

As a result JD Schickerling comes into the starting XV to form a lock partnership with Chris van Zyl‚ with Salmaan Moerat on the replacements’ bench.

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck said that the safety of the players would always come first.

“We were hopeful that Eben would be fit to play against the Hurricanes‚ but unfortunately he did not come through some of the tests later in the week‚ so we made the call to give him another week to recover fully‚” Fleck said.

“JD Schickerling has been in great form this season and we are also excited about what Salmaan Moerat will do with this opportunity.”

Revised Stormers team: 15 Dillyn Leyds‚ 14 Sergeal Petersen‚ 13 Ruhan Nel‚ 12 Damian de Allende‚ 11 SP Marais‚ 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis‚ 9 Herschel Jantjies‚ 8 Juarno Augustus‚ 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit‚ 6 Siya Kolisi (captain)‚ 5 JD Schickerling‚ 4 Chris van Zyl‚ 3 Frans Malherbe‚ 2 Bongi Mbonambi‚ 1 Steven Kitshoff.

Replacements: 16 Scarra Ntubeni‚ 17 Corne Fourie‚ 18 Wilco Louw‚ 19 Salmaan Moerat‚ 20 Jaco Coetzee‚ 21 Justin Phillips‚ 22 Dan du Plessis‚ 23 Damian Willemse.

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