De Allende feeling refreshed
Following his injury, Damian De Allende has worked very hard to come back into the Stormers fold. And he hopes that he will get back to his best sooner rather than later.
|||After Monday’s Stormers press conference, Damian de Allende came back into the pressroom bare-chested.
“Not too bad hey?” joked the Springbok centre as he came to fetch his normal shorts after wearing the official Stormers press conference gear. It was a bit of a comeback at the reporters gathered, after they reminded him of Robbie Fleck’s joke last Friday that he may be carrying a bit of weight after his injury layoff.
To be fair, De Allende admitted that he picked up a few kilos, because he couldn’t really do a lot of running during the initial stages of his rehab after his ankle injury.
But he has worked very hard to come back into the Stormers fold. And he hopes that he will get back to his best sooner rather than later.
“I think I picked up a bit of weight, but that is coming off nicely. Obviously being injured, you are allowed to get stuck into a few more things than what you usually don’t get stuck into,” the big centre joked.
“This was the plan to be back against the Sunwolves, but you do go through a bit of struggles now and then during rehab. I’m happy with the 35 minutes I got on the field on Friday night.
“My body got a bit stiff, because I’m not used to the contact, but it was nice to get some time off the bench.”
The injury he picked up on club duty in Japan, though, may have been a blessing in disguise, especially because de Allende played non-stop rugby since February last year.
The three months of no contact would have helped him get over a few other niggles, but also refresh him mentally to get back down to business and be his old destructive self.
He also believes that although Eben Etzebeth’s injury is unfortunate, the enforced layoff could also help rejuvenate the lock.
“A lot of people asked me if I’m not sad that I got injured. But I think getting injured at that time maybe helped me a bit, just to get my mind away from rugby and enjoy myself off the field,” he said.
“It’s sad that Eben got injured, but it’s maybe also a good thing that he is off for another two to three weeks before (he) starts training again. If I came back without a break, I think I would have struggled a bit.
“I really enjoyed my time off, but it’s nice to be back and I’m 100 percent focused again.”
De Allende has been picked in the extended squad for the SA Sevens team with an eye on the Olympic Games. Obviously it’s going to be tough for him to make the trip to Rio now after he got injured, but he is still hoping to play in one of the remaining rounds of the Sevens World Series .
After this weekend’s tournament in Singapore, there are only two more tournaments left before the Olympics. So it may not be impossible that we will see De Allende in a Blitzbok jersey.
“I spoke to the Sevens coaches and management staff. I think they still want me to play there,” he said.
“I would like to try it out, but I don’t want to go there half-heartedly. I want to work on my fitness a bit here, and if I feel I can compete in a Sevens tournament at that level of fitness and that level of skill, I will give it a shot.
“But if you go half-heartedly and you are not up to standard, you can get exposed very easily. So we will see how the next few weeks go. If all goes well, I might be playing in a tournament or two. But if I don’t feel comfortable, I won’t rush into things.”
While De Allende is a big boy, and may be forced to play in the forwards for the Sevens, he wants to play in the backs. This was quite amusing to Stormers forwards coach Russell Winter.
“I don’t know what their plans are, but I want to play in the backs!” De Allende said.
“I just think being at a Sevens tournament and playing at that level of intensity will help me in my career.” - Cape Times