@Clevermike. The inform De Allende to be dropped for your hero

 Coetzee announced that Michael Rhodes, Juan de Jongh and Jaco Taute have all made successful recoveries from injury and had resumed full training.

"That's a good thing that we can welcome back players from injury, although it has given us a selection headache," he said.

"They've all been training well and I'm not sure who will be in the team.

"We need to plan things 100 percent correct because it is such an important home game for us. We need to pitch with our A-game."

Reserve flyhalf Peter Grant injured an ankle at training last week and will undergo a fitness test on Tuesday.

De Jongh (centre) and Taute (fullback) will make the run-on XV in the place of Damian de Allende and Joe Pietersen respectively.

Coetzee was likely to use Pietersen in the vacancy left by the injured wing Bryan Habana which would ensure the Stormers still had their most reliable place-kicker to call on.

De Allende made huge progress since making his Super Rugby debut a month ago and he is equally at home on the wing but it looks like he is doomed for a spot on the bench on Saturday evening.

Coetzee said wing Gerhard van den Heever also had strong selection claims to the starting XV.

"The big one will be whether I start with Gerhard van den Heever on the wing and continue with Joe Pietersen at fullback, or bring Jaco in at fullback and move Joe to the wing,” Coetzee said.

The clash at Newlands kicks off at 19:10 on Saturday.

 De Allende makes way for DeJong. Maybe it is smokescreen, hopefully

My forecast remains the same.   With Grant injured - Jantjies will play   The Brumbies continued their main attacks through the channel last week and Lambie had to constantly tackle.  Lambie did his job well - Jantjies s a very poor defender and attacks in the channel would be a disaster for the Stormers.

Wiith De Villiers at 12 and De Jongh at 13 the Stormers backline would be dead as a doornail.  De Jongh can defend reasonably well - but I suspect the heavier and faster Brumbies would not be tackled by him and De Jongh is a serious liability in losing possession, knocking on balls and giving away penalties.   He was useless last year in Super 15 and will be useless again this year.

My forecast - the Brumbies to win by 12+ points 

I just cant imagine how anybody would think you are going to win with a backline of small guys. Aplon, Pietersen, de jong and groom and jantjes. That leaves Jean and van der heever at the 100kg mark. Collectively the backline looks to small. The Brumbies will love running against them. They will lose the vital collisions

What we needed this season is the following team:

Kitshoff, Tiaan, Malherbe, Etzebeth, Bekker, Burger, Vermuelen, Elstadt (940Kg pack).

Groom, Grant, Habana, Allende, Jean, Van Der Heever and Taute, Apart from Groom all the backs are around the 100 kg mark. Now if a backline coach can't mould that into a potent attacking force then I really dont know.

What a second rate side we will see agaisnt the Brumbies. Hugely disappointing the way things are panning out.

However I am still not ruling the Stormers side out. The second rate side beat the wee chiefies so who knows. First lets see who Allistair finally selects. Hopefully Grant will be fit to start.

It is also very disappointing that we have seen so little of Du Plessis and Howard.

This would be a typical Coetzee selection, the bloke has no idea. Dropping the impressive de Allende would be piss poor player management, but its the kind of selections Coetzee makes.

What Coetzee should be doing is moving Jean to 12 and de Allende to 13. Jean is poor at 13.

Saffex

I agree with you to some extent.  Last week the Chiefs attacks failed because of strong tackling by De Allende - who covered for the deficienciency in Jantjies' defence.   Heis heavy tackles stopped the attacks of the Chiefs in the channel.  

Eill De Villiers be able to do that?   Am not sure at all.  De Villiers is a good defender - but nobody can accuse him of being a strong tackler.   I would under the circumstances rather have De Allende at 12 and De Villiers at 13.   Where I do agree is that De Jongh is a bad joke.

I would have preferred the following backline - bearing in mind that a goalkicker is essential.

15     Taute

14     Aplon

13    De Villiers

12    De Allende

11    Aplon

10    Grant

  9    Groom.

With Grant possibly out and Jantjies at flyhalf - Pietersen will have to be included as Jantjies kicking at goal under pressure is bound to miss and a goalkicker would be necessary.   That cuts out either Van den Heever or Taute.  I would think the former.  

Taute to my mind is a good full back - so I would not have a problem with that - but the rest of the backline will disintegrate when the Brumbies attack in earnest.

No way in hell should Grant play ahead of the impressive Jantjies at 10. Jean is a good defender and poor at 13, so he needs to move back to 12 and play the younger, quicker de Allende at 13.

Jantjies has now settled and is a brilliant goal kicker, he should be given the kicking duties.

The Stormers backline should be: 9. Groom 10. Jantjies 11. Joe 12. Jean 13. de Allende 14. v/d Heever 15. Taute

My Stormers backline would be: 9. Groom 10. Jantjies 11. JP du Plessis 12. de Allende 13. Howard 14. v/d Heever 15. Taute

Safex

I can live with your  suggested backline - but i do not think that Jantjies goal kicking can be trusted at this stage.  I also don't think his defence in the channel is up to standard.  He gets run over too easily.  Only I am not sure that De Villiers is a strong enough tackler to off-set the Jantjies deficiency - but it can work..