Stormers hooker injuries cloud win over Scarlets ahead of Ulster visit

The Stormers ran out of hookers during their URC round-four match against the Scarlets. Deon Fourie has a hamstring injury and André-Hugo Venter an elbow injury.

With no specialist left in the position, the scrums went uncontested for the final 23 minutes in Cape Town on Saturday 24 October. Lock Adré Smith moved into the front row at prop and replacement loosehead Olly Reid switched to hooker.

"If you lose both hookers, there’s a plan, but I never thought about three," John Dobson said.

Paul de Villiers also described a difficult afternoon in the set pieces. "It was crazy. Normally you can either scrum or lineout, but today neither of the two was working," he said.

The Stormers still won 52-40, although they had to come through a chaotic second half to do it. They led 33-14 at the break, but the Scarlets fought back to 40-40 with 15 minutes to go. Outside centre Joe Roberts scored a hat-trick for the visitors. Replacement flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed then scored two late tries to win it, as covered in our report on Ahmed's late double. The Stormers scored eight tries to the Scarlets' six.

There was also good news for the Stormers. Scrumhalf Haashim Pead was named Player of the Match in his first start for the side.

The question now is who will play hooker when Ulster come to Cape Town next. The Irish side arrive after a 34-26 defeat by the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday 24 October.