Springboks Rugby World Cup winner suffers ‘serious’ injury in attritional Champions Cup clash

Stormers head coach John Dobson is concerned that flanker Deon Fourie will miss the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury on Saturday.

The Cape Town-based side succumbed to La Rochelle in the last-16 of the Champions Cup following an agonising 22-21 reversal.

They also suffered a number of injury issues with Ben-Jason Dixon, Hacjivah Dayimani, Salmaan Moerat and Leolin Zas all being forced off.

Season-ending

Fourie’s was especially concerning, however, with Dobson stating that it was “serious”, before adding: “It could be the [end of his] season.”

Despite the high attrition rate, the Stormers still gave themselves a shot at claiming an unlikely victory.

La Rochelle had come from 16-0 behind to lead 22-16, but Suleiman Hartzenberg’s try gave Manie Libbok a kick to win the game.

It was the exact same scenario as the pool stage match earlier in the campaign. On that occasion, Libbok was successful, but this time the Springboks fly-half was well wide with his effort.

“It was an impossible kick. In those winds, it was impossible,” Dobson said.

Springbok Manie Libbok hooks late match-winner as La Rochelle down injury-ravaged Stormers

The Stormers failed to match their efforts from their first season in the Champions Cup when they reached the quarter-finals, but the head coach praised his team’s performance.

“What made me really proud, was how they tried to score that try. Damian [Willemse] could’ve scored in the corner, but tried to come in,” he said.

“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.”

Looking towards URC run-in

Dobson also believes that the Stormers can take plenty of positives after running the two-time champions so close as they focus on regaining the United Rugby Championship title.

“The more we can play together and get these experiences. 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,” he said.

“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 could have been really tough and it would’ve compromised the 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.”

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