DHL Stormers tour update – 22/04/13

Speaking after training on Monday night (New Zealand time), DHL Stormers head coach Allister Coetzee said: “The only two guys who didn’t participate in team training were Eben Etzebeth and Elton Jantjies, who did controlled training under the medical staff, but everyone else seems to be fine.

“Elton looks very good and at this stage I’d say he has an 80% chance of playing against the Hurricanes. Eben will definitely not play this week but he’s on track for next week.”

* The DHL Stormers tour squad touched down in Auckland on Sunday (Sunday afternoon – SA time; late Sunday evening – NZ time), after a trip which saw them fly from Cape Town, to Johannesburg, to Sydney and then, finally, on to Auckland.

“We had a smooth flight to Auckland, we got here without any complaints – we’ve been doing this trip for years now, there’s no excuses of jet-lag,” said Coetzee.

“We’re here to do a job. The players have done well, I could see at training that there was a nice energy and we’re looking forward to stepping up preparations tomorrow. We’re all excited to be here and (we’re) looking forward to the first game (against the Hurricanes).”

The Stormers will be based in Auckland for the majority of the next two weeks and will travel to Palmerston North on Thursday ahead of this Friday’s clash against the Hurricanes at the FMG Stadium (kick-off 19h35 NZ time; 09h35 SA time). They will return to Auckland on Saturday morning.

The squad will move on to Sydney after their second tour match, against the Blues in Albany (on Friday, May 3), where they will also be based for almost a fortnight for games against the Waratahs (in Sydney) and the Rebels (in Melbourne).