Stormers loose-forward Schalk Burger is in a race against time to recover from the calf injury he sustained in their bruising 14 - 8 loss to the Blues at Newlands... But maybe it's a blessing in disguise.If Burger doesn't recover from his injury in time, it's likely that Luke Watson will take over the number six jersey and have the responsibility of fighting for the ball on the ground.
Watson has been a revelation this season so far, despite all of the off-the-field issues he's had to deal with in the last six months. His rugby hasn't suffered at all, in fact, it's getting better with every game he plays. Watson has been packing down at number eight in the last two matches but has been doing most of the scavanging work while Burger has been uncharacteristically out of sorts. Burger has been nowhere at ruck time and in general play he's been ineffective, knocking the ball on quite a few times.There was talk at the start of the season that Watson would be shielded from local derbies because of his anti-Springbok and derogatory Afrikaans comments last October, as was the case against the Sharks when he was brought on as a subsititute. But that way of thinking seems to have changed with! Watson likely to start.
Duane Vermeulen will shift! back to his more favoured number eight position with Francois Louw coming back into the starting fifteen. There's also talk of Willem de Waal replacing Peter Grant at flyhalf, suggesting the Stormers will be using the boot a lot against the men from Pretoria.
