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Stormers get injury boost ahead of three-match Super Rugby trip

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The Stormers received a timely boost just hours before flying out for a three-match Super Rugby tour of Australasia.

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Lock Pieter-Steph du Toit has been cleared to tour after recovering from a back injury.

But they will have to do without Springbok hooker Bongi Mbonambi, who has been ruled out of the trip after undergoing emergency surgery – due to a burst appendix.

Mbonambi’s withdrawal means that hooker Dean Muir, who made his Stormers debut off the replacements bench against the Jaguares, is included in the touring squad along with the likes of loose forward Sikhumbuzo Notshe and prop Caylib Oosthuizen, who did not feature in the opening game at Newlands.

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck named a 27-man squad for the road trip.

After getting their 2018 campaign off to a winning start with a 28-20 victory against the Jaguares at Newlands on Saturday, the Stormers fly to Sydney on Sunday – where they will face the Waratahs in the second round.

From Sydney, the squad will then travel to New Zealand for encounters with the Highlanders and Crusaders, before heading back to Cape Town.

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Fleck said that the squad is looking forward to the tour as they look to build on what they achieved in their opening game at Newlands.

“We enjoy touring as a group and feel that there were plenty of positives in our performance against the Jaguares that we can build on in the coming weeks.

“The players have embraced the challenges that lie ahead of us and will be going all-out to raise our game further away from home,” he said.

Stormers squad: Nizaam Carr, Damian de Allende, Jan de Klerk, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Dewaldt Duvenage, Johannes Engelbrecht, Jacobus Janse van Rensburg, Steven Kitshoff, Siyamthanda Kolisi (captain), Dillyn Leyds, Wilco Louw, Sarel Marais, Dean Muir, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Caylib Oosthuizen, Justin Phillips, Raymond Rhule, Carlu Sadie, Ramone Samuels, John Schickerling, Seabelo Senatla, Kobus van Dyk, Chris van Zyl, EW Viljoen, George Whitehead, Cobus Wiese, Damian Willemse.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


While I’m at this point in the article I have to say, now the NRL is a sport were one would stand up and pay attention to the moneyball phenom. Like baseball, it’s a sport of hundreds of identical repetitions, and very easy to data point out.

the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available and look to get ahead of an unfair game in the areas it has always been strong: predictive intelligence and rugby ‘smarts’

Actually while I’m still here, Opta Expected Points analysis is the one new tool I have found interesting in the age of data. Seen how the random plays out as either likely, or unlikely, in the data’s (and algorithms) has actually married very closely to how I saw a lot of contests pan out.


Engaging return article Nick. I wonder, how much of money ball is about strategy as apposed to picks, those young fella’s got ahead originally because they were picking players that played their way right? Often all you here about is in regards to players, quick phase ruck ball, one out or straight up, would be were I’d imagine the best gains are going to be for a data driven leap using an AI model of how to structure your phases. Then moving to tactically for each opposition.

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