Simelane eager to capitalise on strong start to Stormers’ season

Stormers utility back Wandisile Simelane is eager to capitalise on his strong start to the United Rugby Championship (URC) season and take that momentum into their opening tour match against Scarlets in Llanelli on Friday night.

Simelane has been in top form in their opening two matches, a thumping win over defending champs, Leinster, and a man-of-the-match showing in a tough 26-10 victory over their bogey side, Ospreys.

What has made his start even more impressive is that he is doing it from fullback, in the absence of Warrick Gelant and Damian Willemse, and not in his preferred position of centre.

Simelane credited his fellow teammates for his solid start to the season, and although Gelant and Willemse are both in the selection frame for this week’s match, he is hopeful of getting another chance to show what he can do.

“My teammates have helped me a lot. Warrick, Dan (du Plessis) and Ruhan (Nel), and our coaches. The amount of time and energy spent towards the team comes from a place of us all actually wanting to do well,” explained Simelane earlier this week.

“It sounds very clichéd, but when they picked me at 15, the guys around me made it so easy for me to just adapt. You only get better as a player when you are playing, and you are playing more regularly. It will help everything. It will help with confidence, and with decision-making.

“I do understand that it requires a massive squad effort for us to be sharp towards the business end of the competition. But if you offer me playing more or playing at centre, it would definitely be to play.”

Tough travels

The Stormers have not been a good travelling team in the URC previously, and are thus desperate to turn that around by continuing their good start to the campaign, and a win over a tricky Scarlets team in Wales will be the perfect start.

“We’re not going to downplay the fact that starting well was important for us. But having said that, now that we’re going on tour, it’s almost like a new start,” said Simelane.

“It’s now important for us to reset and put the two wins behind us and try to accumulate as many points as possible on this tour.”

Following Friday’s match the Stormers go on to face Zebre and Benetton in Italy, and Director of Rugby John Dobson admitted after their win over Ospreys, that they were hoping to come away from the tour with at least two wins out of three, which would leave them in a great position going into the international break.