Stormers overcome centre crisis as rookie steps up: 'It couldn't have been worse for us'

Stormers coach John Dobson has praised the efforts of 20-year-old debutant Sacha Mngomezulu following Saturday's hard-fought 28-17 United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-final victory over Edinburgh at Cape Town Stadium. 

Having lost star centre Damian Willemse to injury on Friday, Dobson turned to Rikus Pretorius to wear the all-important No 12 jersey against Edinburgh in front of over 20 000 fans. 

Pretorius, himself, has just come back from a long injury lay-off, and when he limped off the field just four minutes in, there were alarms bells ringing in the Stormers coaching box. 

It meant that Mngomezulu, who has had limited Currie Cup game time this season, was then thrust onto easily the biggest stage of his career so far and asked to do a massive job on debut. 

There were moments of over-excitement, but by the end of his 67-minute stint on the park before he was also subbed, Mngomezulu had given a solid performance that was particularly impressive on defence. 

"That was seismic," Dobson said of the moment Pretorius went down.

"We didn't have Juan de Jongh on the bench because we wanted to cover other positions, and then we brought in Rikus who has been out with a long-term injury, and he lasted four minutes.

"It couldn't have been worse for us, but I think Sacha did really well."

Vice-captain Salmaan Moerat agreed.

"We know that Sacha is a young player, but he is very capable and we didn't doubt him at all," said Moerat.

"When he came on the plan didn't change. I really need to compliment him and I think he did really well."

Willemse and Pretorius will both be unavailable for next weekend's semi-final against Ulster in Cape Town. 

"Damian could be out for six weeks. He's desperate to play and we'll keep scanning him, but I