Playing Etzebeth not a risk: Fleck

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck does not believe that starting Eben Etzebeth against the Hurricanes this weekend will be a risk if he passes the concussion protocols.

Etzebeth was expected to be fit to face the Hurricanes this weekend but failed the fifth stage of the concussion protocol on Thursday.

He is in the team but unfortunately that is not quite it as far as Eben is concerned for this match because he failed the fifth stage of the concussion protocol today, said Fleck from Wellington.

That means he still has to pass stage five, so we will give him until tomorrow (Friday) to do that. He has been looking good and has been passing all the stages. We are confident he will play. But if it doesn't go well for him then we will bump JD (Schickerling) back into the starting team and bring Salmaan Moerat in on the bench.

Playing him won't be risky as we have followed all the protocols. Eben is obviously very keen to play. We'd never put any player at risk or anything like that, so we will follow the medical tests. If he is passed to play, then he will start.

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Fleck said that should Etzebeth not be passed fit JD Schickerling would come into the starting lineup to partner Chris van Zyl, while Salmaan Moerat would come up onto the bench.

If he doesn't play it won't be too disruptive as we have trained with JD and Salmaan this week. Obviously it was a really short week training-wise, with only two sessions. We trained on Tuesday and again today. Eben has been part of all those sessions, and the walk-throughs, and so have the other players, Fleck said.

It has been a great training week for us. Apart from Eben, everything has gone according to plan.

Fleck's bench is a big part of his gameplan against a Hurricanes team that have struggled to sustain their best rugby for 80 minutes.

He added: I thought Damian was outstanding off the bench last week and he made a big impact, he is back to his best. In fact I thought the whole bench played well, and we do have a strong bench for this game.

JD, Scarra, Jaco (Coetzee), Dan, Wilco we have a lot of impact coming onto the field and we will need that against a team that always tend to lift the tempo later in the game.

I am looking forward to the bench playing a crucial role in Saturday's game. It will be needed, particularly against a New Zealand team that likes to play with tempo and is always dangerous on their home patch regardless of what team they put out.

The Hurricanes host the Stormers on Saturday with kick-off scheduled for 08:35 SAST.

Stormers match squad vs Hurricanes Stormers team: Dillyn Leyds, Sergeal Petersen, Ruhan Nel, Damian de Allende, SP Marais, Jean-Luc du Plessis, Herschel Jantjies, Juarno Augustus, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), Chris van Zyl, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff. Replacements: Scarra Ntubeni, Corne Fourie, Wilco Louw, JD Schickerling, Jaco Coetzee, Justin Phillips, Dan du Plessis, Damian Willemse.

Hurricanes squad Hurricanes: 15 Chase Tiatia, 14 Wes Goosen, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Ben Lam, 10 Beauden Barrett (c), 9 Richard Judd, 8 Reed Prinsep, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Liam Mitchell, 4 James Blackwell, 3 Ben May, 2 Ricky Riccitelli, 1 Fraser Armstrong

Replacements: 16 James O'Reilly, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Jeff To'omaga-Allen, 19 Isaia Walker-Leawere, 20 Sam Henwood, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Fletcher Smith, 23 Danny Toala

Tags: HurricanesStormersSuper Rugby

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