The Stormers or DHL Stormers as they are also known is based in the Western Cape province of South Africa. They draw players from DHL Western Province (WP) & Boland Cavaliers. The team is mainly based at Newlands rugby Stadium under the hangs of the world famous Table Mountain, but they have played games at Boland rugby stadium in the Paarl from time to time.  

Although they have not won the Super Rugby trophy as yet, they have been in the Finals (2010), where they lost to the Bulls, and have made it to the semi-finals on 3 occasions in the past. The Stormers lost twice to the Crusaders and once to the Highlanders in the semi-finals.  

Although they have not won any silverware in this competition the Stormers still have the highest average attendance for games at Newlands. The Cape Town faithful sure knows how to support their team.  Newlands is the oldest stadium in the world with the first game being played here in 1890.The 2012 squad will be captained by Springbok flanker, Schalk Burger. He will be joined in the  extendedsquad by:

Props
·         Wicus Blaauw
·         Tom Botha
·         Deon Carstens
·         Schalk Ferreira
·         Brok Harris
·         Steven Kitshoff
·         Frans Malherbe
·         Hein van der Merwe
·         Allister Vermaak

Hookers
·         Deon Fourie
·         Clemen Lewis
·         Tiaan Liebenberg
·         Siyabonga Ntubeni

Locks
·         Andries Bekker
·         Rynhardt Elstadt
·         Eben Etzebeth
·         Hilton Lobberts
·         Quinn Roux
·         De Kock Steenkamp

Loose Forwards
·         Donovan Armand
·         Schalk Burger (c)
·         Nizaam Carr
·         Nick Fenton-Wells
·         Yaya Hartzenberg
·         Reuben Johannes
·         Rohan Kitshoff
·         Siyamthanda Kolisi
·         Nick Koster
·         Duane Vermeulen

Scrum-Halves
·         Bolla Conradie
·         Dewaldt Duvenage
·         Nic Groom
·         Louis Schreuder
·         Ricky Schroeder

Fly-Halves
·         Demetri Catrakilis
·         Kurt Coleman
·         Burton Francis
·         Peter Grant
·         Gary van Aswegen
·         Willem van Wyk

Centres
·         Marcel Brache
·         Juan de Jongh
·         Jean de Villiers
·         JP du Plessis
·         Berton Klaasen
·         Adrian Kritzinger
·         Michael van der Spuy

Wingers
·         Gio Aplon
·         Bryan Habana
·         Danie Poolman
·         Gerhard van den Heever

Full-Backs
·         Joe Pietersen
·         Tim Swiel

There have been some personnel changes and the following players have joined and left the squad:

In for 2012
·         Gerhard van den Heever (from Bulls)
·         JP du Plessis (from Melbourne Rebels)
·         Joe Pietersen (from Bayonne)
·         Deon Carstens (from Saracens)

Out for 2012
·         EthienneReynecke (Connacht)
·         CJ van der Linde (Lions)
·         Anton van Zyl (StadeFrançais)
·         Francois Louw (Bath)
·         Ricky Januarie (Lyon)
·         Lionel Cronje (Bulls)
·         Johann Sadie (Bulls)
·         Paul Bosch (Montpellier)
·         JJ Engelbrecht (Bulls)
·         Tim Whitehead (Sharks)
·         AdriaanFondse (Newcastle Falcons)
·         Conrad Jantjes (Biarritz)
·         Pieter Louw (released)
·         Jaque Fourie (Panasonic Wild Knights)

Players to look out for during the season are Siyamthanda Kolisi, Demetri Catrakilis, Duane Vermeulen and Gerhard van der Heever,

The coaching staff looks as follows:

·         Head Coach – Allister Coetzee
·         Backline Coach – Robbie Fleck
·         Forwards Coach – Matthew Proudfoot
·         Team Manager – Chippie Solomon

You can look forward to some good running rugby being played by the Stormers. They have never been known for a kicking game but when it is called for they can produce this as well. The forwards pack will have a lot of work to do as again this is not the Stormers strong point. The backline however can compete with the best in the world. During the 2010 and 2011 seasons they had the best defensive record in the competition and will hope to build on that for 2012.

Having finished runners-up in 2010 and losing semi-finalists after finishing second on the log in 2011, the Stormers should be able to finish top of the South African conference and it will come as a surprise should they not be in the top 2 come seasons end.

In a shock move Senior Professional Coach, Rassie Erasmus, resigned from the Stormers and Western Province Rugby union on Tuesday 10 January 2012. The reason has been given as: “there are a couple of opportunities on a higher level that has come up.” He has been linked as assistant to Nick Mallet at England as well as assistant to GertSmal, both of them former Western Province head coaches. Rassie has also been linked as a possible Springbok coach. None of this could be confirmed by the time I posted this article. No indication from Western Province Rugby has been forth coming as to who would replace Rassie at the union. As and when I get more information I will keep you updated.

But as always this is just my view…..

Dave