Thursday, 2nd August 2007 at 1:41 pm

Stormers to sign Zimbabwean star?

2008 is shaping up as a year of change for the Stormers, with Rassie Erasmus and Os du Randt taking over coaching, De Wet Barry and Brent Russell amongst the players leaving, and now, possibly, a young Zimbabwean front row forward joining the squad - a young Zimbabwean who even Os will have to concede is a large lad.

Ilan Weisenbacher played schoolboy and club rugby in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second biggest city, but had stopped playing after moving to Cape Town, where he was working as a car guard when spotted by player agent Socrates Georgiades. Not that he was hard to spot - at that stage Weisenbacher was weighing in at a svelte 168 kilograms.

“We have him down to 152 kilograms, and we’re aiming for 140 by the end of the year,” Georgiades, speaking exclusively to Feverpitcher, explained. “We spoken to a number of teams, and there’s a lot of interest, so ideally we’ll be signing something soon. Ilan is just very excited to have the chance to play rugby, and send money back to his wife and four children in Bulawayo.”

Western Province Rugby Union have so far not commented on speculation that Weisenbacher will be playing for the Stormers next season, but a source at Newlands confided to Feverpitcher that “anyone that enormous would have to be an asset in the front row”. 145 kilograms of furiously scrumming Zimbabwean? The Stormers front row could be quite a unit come 2008.