Cape Town - Stormers lock Eben Etzebeth will miss the encounter with the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday due to concussion.
Etzebeth took a knock to the head in the 35-8 win against the Jaguares at Newlands last week which saw him go off for a Head Impact Assessment (HIA) and spend the rest of the game on the sidelines.
The experienced second-rower was named in the Stormers starting line-up on Thursday, after passing a number of standard tests in the week, but has subsequently been ruled out.
As a result JD Schickerling comes into the starting line-up to form a lock partnership with Chris van Zyl, with Salmaan Moerat on the bench.
Stormers coach Robbie Fleck said that the safety of the players will always come first.
“We were hopeful that Eben would be fit to play against the Hurricanes, but unfortunately he did not come through some of the tests later in the week, so we made the call to give him another week to recover fully.
“JD Schickerling has been in great form this season and we are also excited about what Salmaan Moerat will do with this opportunity,” he said.
Saturday's clash is scheduled for 08:35 (SA time).
Teams:
Hurricanes
15 Chase Tiatia, 14 Wes Goosen, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Ben Lam, 10 Beauden Barrett (captain), 9 Richard Judd, 8 Reed Prinsep, 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Liam Mitchell, 4 James Blackwell, 3 Ben May, 2 Ricky Riccitelli, 1 Fraser Armstrong
Substitutes: 16 James O’Reilly, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen, 19 Isaia Walker-Leawere, 20 Sam Henwood, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Fletcher Smith, 23 Danny Toala
Stormers
15 Dillyn Leyds, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 SP Marais, 10 Jean-Luc du Plessis, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Chris van Zyl, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes:16 Scarra Ntubeni, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Jaco Coetzee, 21 Justin Phillips, 22 Dan du Plessis, 23 Damian Willemse
Eben Etzebeth has been ruled out of the DHL Stormers' encounter with the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday due to concussion. JD Schickerling comes into the starting line-up, with Salmaan Moerat on the bench - https://t.co/mnR7uEdSEn #iamastormer
— DHL STORMERS (@THESTORMERS) March 22, 2019