Last season’s top try-scorer in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship has been returned to the DHL Stormers starting team as one of seven changes for Friday night’s second tour game against the Ospreys in Swansea.
Zas has not played since sustaining the injury in last season’s semifinal against Ulster that prevented him from taking any part in the final against the Vodacom Bulls. However, he has been back in training for a couple of weeks now and the speedy wing has apparently been looking impressive and ready to continue where he left off in the 2021-22 season.
There is in fact a total change around of the Stormers’ back three for the game in Swansea in comparison to the one that was together in the 37-20 win over Zebre Parma in Parma last weekend. Angelo Davids is the only back three survivor from that game, but the Blitzbok Commonwealth Games hero has had to shift from the left to the right wing to accommodate Zas in the No 11 jersey.
Clayton Blommetjies returns to the team at fullback after missing last weekend’s game as he was getting married. Damian Willemse played the last line of defence in Italy, but has subsequently returned home, as has fellow Springbok Herschel Jantjies.
A minor surprise might be the non-appearance in the starting team of the 22-point Parma hero Sacha Mngomezulu, but the Junior Springbok captain is part of the bench. Instead, Dan du Plessis comes back into the starting team to partner Samoan Alapati Leuia in the midfield.
The value of having Mngomezulu in the mix is underlined by his versatility off the bench, as he plays a similar role there for the Stormers as Frans Steyn and Willemse have for the Springboks. His ability to play anywhere at the back has enabled Dobson to again go for a six/two split between forwards and backs on the bench.
Also back in the starting team is Hacjivah Dayimani, who is joined by Nama Xaba on the other flank, with the only change to the tight five that struggled a bit at lineout time last week being the return of lineout kingpin Marvin Orie. The lock captained the Stormers the last time he started, which was in the home win over Edinburgh, but his second-row partner Salmaan Moerat will continue in the captaincy role he filled last week.
While the changes to the Stormers starting team end there, there have been two significant additions to the bench in the form of Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff, who captained the Stormers to the URC title last season, and fellow Bok Joseph Dweba.
Stormers coach John Dobson said he was excited to have Zas back in the mix, as well as Kitshof and Dweba.
“Leolin was one of the standout players for us last season until he was injured in the semifinal, so it is great to have him back,” said Dobson.
“Then of course to have players of Joseph and Steven’s quality coming on for us off the bench is also something we are looking forward to. It has been a short turnaround week due to us playing on a Friday night and we also lost a day to travelling from Italy. So we are going to have to really lift ourselves against an Ospreys team that will be full of internationals who will be ready to go after being rested last weekend.”
DHL Stormers team: Clayton Blommetjies, Angelo Davids, Alapati Leuia, Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas, Manie Libbok, Paul de Wet, Evan Roos, Hacjivah Dayimani, Nama Xaba, Marvin Orie, Salmaan Moerat (captain), Neethling Fouche, Andre-Hugo Venter, Ali Vermaak. Replacements: Joseph Dweba, Steven Kitshoff, Brok Harris, Ernst van Rhyn, Marcel Theunissen, Willie Engelbrecht, Godlen Masimla, Sacha Mngomezulu.