Vodacom Stormers back at training

Bad news for Stormers supporters is that props Brian Mujati and JD Moller as well as flank Schalk Burger and fullback Conrad Jantjes didn’t take part in the training session.

Mujati left the field in Saturday’s defeat to the Blues with a neck injury. Moller injured his shoulder, while Burger had to cry off with a sore calf.

Jantjes didn’t play against the Blues due to a calf problem and on Monday wasn’t sufficiently recovered to run with his team-mates.

Stormers media spokesperson Frikkie Erasmus said the medical team will monitor all the injured players this week and a decision about their availability for the Loftus clash would be taken later this week.

Captain Jean de Villiers meanwhile said he could not agree with coach Rassie Erasmus’ assertion that the coaching staff has to share responsibility for the handling errors the players made on Saturday.

He said it was time the players took responsibility. “They (the coaching staff) can’t teach us to catch and pass. The players must take responsibility there. We did create opportunities but at the end you have to catch the balls and use those opportunities when they arrive.

“If the ball sticks we will score tries and hopefully that will happen this weekend,” added the captain. Asked if the fact that the Stormers only conceded one try against the Blues to the four the Bulls leaked in their game was a positive, De Viliers said the Stormers have no choice but to stay positive.

“We have to… we can only stay positive now. One win changes it again. All we can do is keep on focusing on what we want to achieve on the field – the glass is still half full.” De Viliers said there was no lack of commitment from the players’ side. “Definitely not. In the second half we still created opportunities and again we couldn’t catch the ball on Saturday.

“If you go through the team each guy must have dropped or lost the ball at least once in the game and you can’t win games like that. There is a lot of responsibility the players must take and decisions on the field I must take as well and hopefully we can rectify that.

“That is the only way we can get better.”