Fijian Sireli Naqelevuki has payed the highest price for his blunder against the Sharks last week by being left out of the squad for Saturday’s game against the Bulls.

The Stormers wing produced an elementary error when he failed to pick up a ball that had been kicked into the Stormers’ ingoal area by Sharks flyhalf Ruan Pienaar, who came through and pounced on it to score the Durban team’s second try in their upset Super 14 win over the more favoured side.

The score came at a critical time as the outplayed Stormers had done well to limit the Sharks to a lead of just 7-0 up to that point. As a result of the “gift” try, the Sharks had a comfortable buffer at half-time and on a night where their own defensive game was outstanding, John Smit’s men just left the Stormers with too much to do in the second half.

The decision to axe the Fijian was not surprising considering the vitriol and outrage that has been spewed out in the Cape since the ABSA Stadium clash. Naqelevuki was also blamed for the defeat to the Bulls in last year’s Currie Cup semifinal in Cape Town as it was his high tackle that set up the Bulls for the Morne Steyn penalty that sunk Western Province’s hopes.

However, while Naqelevuki has been omitted from the entire match 22 for the do or die game against the Bulls at Newlands on Saturday, you get a sense that Stormers coach Allister Coetzee was sorry to have to sacrifice the good points in Naqelevuki’s game.

Instead of attributing the selection decision to leave Naqelevuki out to the mistake made in Durban, Coetzee pointed out that the Bulls are likely to employ an aerial bombardment in the final Super 14 league fixture. Naqelevuki is patently week when opponents adopt that approach, and most South Sea islanders are weak when they are turned by kicks. It was even a weakness in the game of the great Jonah Lomu.

There are sure to be some who will speculate that Coetzee is being economical with the truth when he uses the kicking game as an excuse to leave Naqelevuki out, but the fact is that the move does have historical precedent.

Naqelevuki’s best game for the Stormers this year was the one against the Hurricanes at Newlands, where he and Joe Pietersen virtually destroyed the Hurricanes on his own. However, although he was the man of the match, Naqelevuki was dropped for the following match against the Cheetahs – because Gio Aplon’s better kicking game was seen as the right horses for courses selection against those opponents.

“Sireli is well liked and supported by the other players in the squad, not just because he is liked but because there is a massive amount of respect for what he can do as a rugby player,” said Coetzee.

“We have all seen the stats, they have been run in the past few days in the Cape Town newspapers. Sireli has made a lot of metres for us this season, he has done a lot of good things, he even has better stats than Bryan Habana. He is a quality player and if we look back over the season, he has done well for us.

“It is just that we have assessed where the challenge from the Bulls is going to come, and we are expecting an aerial bombardment. With Joe Pietersen back at fullback it made sense to select Gio Aplon on the wing because he has an excellent left boot on him and that will come in useful against the Bulls.”

All sound rugby logic, so don’t be surprised if, once the emotion dies down, Naqelevuki is back to play in the semi-finals – particularly if the opponents are Kiwis, against whom the big Fijian has been particularly successful this season.

Apart from the axing of Naqelevuki to enable Pietersen to return to fullback and Aplon to move to the wing, the other change to the Stormers team that lost 20-14 last week comes in the front-row, where a fit again Wicus Blaauw is back to anchor the scrum from loosehead in place of JD Moller.

The poor Stormers scrumming probably played more of a role last week than Naqelevuki’s game because the Stormers were simply unable to launch against the Sharks, and was the reason they spent the entire match chugging along in first gear.

TEAM:

Joe Pietersen, Gio Aplon, Jaque Fourie, Juan de Jongh, Bryan Habana, Peter Grant, Dewaldt Duvenage, Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger (captain), Andries Bekker, Adriaan Fondse, Brok Harris, Tiaan Liebenberg, Wicus Blaauw.

Reserves: Deon Fourie, Eusebio Guinazu, Anton van Zyl, Pieter Louw, Ricky Januarie, Willem de Waal, Tim Whitehead.

Source: supersport.co.za