Kitshoff is one hell of an athlete though.Malherbe more of a set piece guy-ie like Faan Rautenbach,Kitshoff is all round hybrid-ie: Guthro Steenkamp type.

Both have massive futures

16 Oosthuizen
17 Ralepelle
18 Kitshoff
19 Etsebeth
20 Vermeulen
21 Hougaard
22 De Villiers

1.Beast
2.Bismark
3.Du Plessis
4.Sykes
5.Hargreaves
6.Daniel
7.Alberts
8.Kankowski

In that starting XV there are 12 players who went through Sharks Academy system-from age 18.

With only Alberts,McCleod,Du Plessis recruited as senior players.

That is good enough for me.

With KZN region not having a dominant/vibrant traditional rugby tertiary institution in its midst-the Academy is the only drawing card.If that makes them breeding ground for “mercenaries” so be it. You use what you have at your disposal.

And for all their rich “traditional” recruiting methods,schools etc the Western Cape hasnt had any silverware of any kind for longer than a decade.And still has the most amateurish run union/spaza shop Council which leaks the most talent throughout country every year.(ie:Frans Hougaard)

At the end of the day it doesnt matter really,the Bulls empire under Meyer was BUILT on recruiting players from other provinces then indoctrinating them in the Bulls system and culture-RESULT: most dominant franchise in pro era.

This is pro sport so it must be run like it,

Of course it is… take what Ou Doos says with a pinch of salt…

Stormers won only one of their opposition’s scrum and more telling 5 of their oppositions line-out… Kollisi made the most tackles missing none along with JDV, Harris, Etzabeth with only Koster, Bekker and Carr missing tackles out of the pack and Peter Grant missing 4 from 6…

Both JDV and JDJ made the most metres with the most runs ball-in hand, with only JDV making a line-break out of the two…

Ou Doos is as Ou Doos does…

at one stage Stormers pack punished Blues with 4 tight heads in succession after Malherbe came on with Kitschoff and Blues were down to their reserve loose head by then.. all the stuffing knocked out of Mealamu and his front row.

@nama1(nama1)-264:
hey if it works thats what u play. look at the first game your pack was all over the hurricanes and they still did not cotton on to drive it up and maul for like 60mins, should shut them down at source, stormers are lucky cos they always got the natural ability to create some magic, but never had any power upfront for decades now, up until now..

yeah oconnor also steps well and powers off strong thru the tackle, v hard to bring down.

O’Connor not too shabby in the step stakes. Stepped twice of his left foot today to score under the post.

JdV has been quite good so far this season. He’s had a few line breaks and set up play beautifully in the middle of the park on a few occasions. Plus, he is the captain at this stage. Don’t know if JdJ will get a chance at inside centre during the tournament.

he reads the game very well, but i dont want mr cerebral as a 12, here is where u do want the unthinking dyanmism balls to the wall injection..

what the stormers got at the moment…quite unbelievably…is a decent pack for the first time in a very long time…in fact i think they quite capable of bullying the bully boys if they get stuck in.