The following from News24:-
"After a largely impressive season in which he has catapulted himself into Springbok contention for the September/October World Cup, Damian de Allende is in need of a break.
The centre hasPLAYED in every Stormers match this Super Rugby season and remains a crucial player to coach Allister Coetzee’s hopes of going the distance in the competition.
A rare error against the Brumbies almost proved costly, though. With just 14 minutes gone, De Allende gathered the ball and then stabbed a poor grubber straight to Joe Tomane as the visitors went 10 points clear.
Coetzee was not overly concerned by that, but does acknowledge that De Allende will be one of the players toBENEFIT most from this week’s break.
“If you look at a player like Damien de Allende, a lot of people are talking about how poor he’s played,” Coetzee said. “That is one of the players who hasn’t missed anyGAMES, who hasn’t had any rest and has trained every session and was in the Bok camp.”
“He’s over-reaching and we were so worried about it a while ago, but everything was so crucial. That’s why this break is massively important for a player of his calibre.”
“I know that Damian will come backREFRESHED and that’s vital for the rest of the campaign.”
The Stormers areNEXT in action when they host the Rebels on May 23."
I expected this one - he clearly should have been given a break before - but was crucial to the backline of the Stormers - who only have 3 real quality backline players in De Allende, Van Wyk and Kolbe. Van Wyk is now injured and it is easy to concentrate on De Allende and Kolbe so as to neutralize them.
The rest of the backline is made up of average players (2) and jokers (2) .
