NPR

The match will be streamed live on the Northampton Saints YouTube channel on Saturday. https://www.youtube.com/SaintsTV

9 March 2024 at 14:30

Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Chris Hollis, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Junior Pokomela, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Gary Porter, 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Brok Harris (c).
Subs: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Scarra Ntubeni, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Nama Xaba, 22 Marcel Theunissen, 23 Godlen Masimla, 24 Hacjivah Dayimani, 25 Damian Markus, 26 Suleiman Hartzenberg.

Cheers Oom

I did it for my Saint broer. England seem more important

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs DHL STORMERS
Saturday 9 March, 2024
cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens
Kick-off: 2.30pm

15 Jake Garside
14 Will Glister
13 Tom Litchfield
12 Burger Odendaal
11 Ollie Sleightholme
10 Charlie Savala
9 Callum Braley

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Sam Matavesi
3 Trevor Davison
4 Tom Lockett
5 Chunya Munga
6 Angus Scott-Young
7 Lewis Ludlam (c)
8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements:
Robbie Smith
Tom Cruse
Alex Waller
Ethan Waller
Paul Hill
Temo Mayanavanua
Alex Moon
Geordie Irvine
Kayde Sylvester
Sam Graham
Tom James
Rory Hutchinson
Tom Seabrook
Ewan Baker
Alfie Garside*

* Denotes guest player

DHL STORMERS TEAM TO FACE SAINTS:
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Chris Hollis, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Ben Loader, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Keke Morabe, 7 Junior Pokomela, 6 Willie Engelbrecht, 5 Connor Evans, 4 Gary Porter, 3 Sazi Sandi, 2 JJ Kotze, 1 Brok Harris (c).
Replacements: 16 Chad Solomon, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Scarra Ntubeni, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Nama Xaba, 22 Marcel Theunissen, 23 Godlen Masimla, 24 Hacjivah Dayimani, 25 Damian Markus, 26 Suleiman Hartzenberg.

Not available for selection:
Tarek Haffar, George Hendy, Curtis Langdon (suspended), Beltus Nonleh, Tom Pearson, Ed Prowse, and James Ramm.

International duty:
Elliot Millar Mills (Scotland), Alex Coles, Fraser Dingwall, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Alex Mitchell, and Fin Smith (all England).

Referee: George Selwood
Assistant referees: Greg Macdonald and Peter Allan
No. 4: Andy Ashwell

No idea how strong the Stormers side is, but only about 3 or 4 regular starters for Saints.

Oxbow wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 9:54 am No idea how strong the Stormers side is, but only about 3 or 4 regular starters for Saints.

Saints obviously trying to give as many of the senior squad a runout as possible. They've selected 30 for this match!!
Have to say there are a few names there i don't recognise.

Oxbow wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 9:54 am No idea how strong the Stormers side is, but only about 3 or 4 regular starters for Saints.

Ditto Stormers. Without 12 players in Springbok camp.

Stormers leading 26-19 at ht. Great game this far

Stormers 45-29 win. Great performance .

Dayimani wearing his Saints jersey under his Stormers and show it after he score. First time I ever see this.

OomStruisbaai wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:21 pm Dayimani wearing his Saints jersey under his Stormers and show it after he score. First time I ever see this.

He’s quite the character and I’ve really warmed to him. Seems like he’s really enjoying himself.

Blake wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 7:02 pm

OomStruisbaai wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:21 pm Dayimani wearing his Saints jersey under his Stormers and show it after he score. First time I ever see this.

He’s quite the character and I’ve really warmed to him. Seems like he’s really enjoying himself.

Can you imagine how many Sharks players will wear two jerseys but then they won't score tries.

OomStruisbaai wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:21 pm Dayimani wearing his Saints jersey under his Stormers and show it after he score. First time I ever see this.

Can someone explain to me what he was trying to do. I just do not understand the point.

I'm not sure if Dr. Rassie will be impressed by this stunt either.

assfly wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 5:54 am

OomStruisbaai wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 4:21 pm Dayimani wearing his Saints jersey under his Stormers and show it after he score. First time I ever see this.

Can someone explain to me what he was trying to do. I just do not understand the point.

I'm not sure if Dr. Rassie will be impressed by this stunt either.

It was a friendly exibition match. He probably did it on a dare and it played to the crowd. Got a few smiles, and he probably knew it would go viral. From what I can tell it's been well received by the Saints fans.

The guy is quite savvy and is trying to build a brand for himself to sustain his career after rugby, be it plugging his sneakers whenever he gets a MOTM award or his post-URC Championship celebration binge...or now this stunt. So far all the "stunts" have been quite harmless and succeeded in getting people talking about them (and by implication him).

Maybe it rubs some people the wrong way, but I'm quite enjoying the antics. As long as they stay harmless and don't become too obnoxious or more important than his performances on the field, I don't mind that he's trying to maximize his personal profile while he's in the prime of his career.

I think he's made peace with not being on Rassie's radar, so he's just focussing on putting in good performances week-after-week and seeing where it takes his career...be it a call up from Rassie or an offer from France or Japan.

Blake wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:54 am It was a friendly exibition match. He probably did it on a dare and it played to the crowd. Got a few smiles, and he probably knew it would go viral. From what I can tell it's been well received by the Saints fans.

The guy is quite savvy and is trying to build a brand for himself to sustain his career after rugby, be it plugging his sneakers whenever he gets a MOTM award or his post-URC Championship celebration binge...or now this stunt. So far all the "stunts" have been quite harmless and succeeded in getting people talking about them (and by implication him).

Maybe it rubs some people the wrong way, but I'm quite enjoying the antics. As long as they stay harmless and don't become too obnoxious or more important than his performances on the field, I don't mind that he's trying to maximize his personal profile while he's in the prime of his career.

I think he's made peace with not being on Rassie's radar, so he's just focussing on putting in good performances week-after-week and seeing where it takes his career...be it a call up from Rassie or an offer from France or Japan.

Cheers for the explanation. It's definitely not my flavour in player behaviour and it did make me cringe, but maybe that's just me and I can see where he's coming from if that's the truth.

I also wasn't too stoked initially, but over time I've come to appreciate that the sport needs to characters here and there, otherwise the media-trained, stock standard responses and platitudes are going to become stale very quickly.

Over time Diyamani and other players going this way are going to "overshoot" and push things too far. That is definitely a danger, but hopefully the teams and management will have ways of self-policing and reeling things back in. So far I think he's been harmless enough and has struck the right balance of good fun, sillyness and cringe.

Blake wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 11:21 am otherwise the media-trained, stock standard responses and platitudes are going to become stale very quickly.

This does my head in, and appears to be a very South African trait.

All glory to god.
Credit to the opposition.
Ja it was a game of who halves.
This competition doesn't get any easier.
I'm super proud of the boys.

assfly wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 11:38 am

Blake wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 11:21 am otherwise the media-trained, stock standard responses and platitudes are going to become stale very quickly.

This does my head in, and appears to be a very South African trait.

All glory to god.
Credit to the opposition.
Ja it was a game of who halves.
This competition doesn't get any easier.
I'm super proud of the boys.

"Ja, we dug deep there and the boys showed a lot of character to fight back in the end. We'll do the video analysis on Monday and see what we could have done better, but credit to them. They wanted it more in the end."

They can just cut that soundbite and replay it week after week. I don't know why they even bother interviewing the captains to be honest. It's more fun when they just interview the MOTM who is usually not as media-trained and accidentally drops an f-bomb or has a human interest story. That's why I appreciate Diyamani upending the script...even if it is a little cringeworthy at times.

Blake wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:54 am I think he's made peace with not being on Rassie's radar, so he's just focussing on putting in good performances week-after-week and seeing where it takes his career...be it a call up from Rassie or an offer from France or Japan.

He's not consistent enough to be a Bok. Goes missing too often (probably thinking about his next underpants deal with Pick 'n Pay instead of hitting rucks)

Sandstorm wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 12:53 pm

Blake wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:54 am I think he's made peace with not being on Rassie's radar, so he's just focussing on putting in good performances week-after-week and seeing where it takes his career...be it a call up from Rassie or an offer from France or Japan.

He's not consistent enough to be a Bok. Goes missing too often (probably thinking about his next underpants deal with Pick 'n Pay instead of hitting rucks)

I think that's fair. Also why I'm not too fussed about him not cracking the Bok Alignment camp. Historically, whenever he's had some success out wide, he'd start seagulling on the wing and became anonymous in the tight matches.

That being said, so far this season it seems as if he's been working on that. He's been putting in much more consistent performances and we really miss him when he's not on the pitch. The trio of Fourie, Diyamani and Roos seems to be nicely balanced.

We need Willie in 7 or 8. Specially against the Bulls.

Blake wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 12:19 pm
"Ja, we dug deep there and the boys showed a lot of character to fight back in the end. We'll do the video analysis on Monday and see what we could have done better, but credit to them. They wanted it more in the end."

I read that with a heavy Afrikaans accent