When the DHL Stormers run out onto their home ground on Saturday it will be the first time in several years that they are starting a home Vodacom URC derby against the Bulls not engaged in a desperate fight for survival.
Poor starts to three successive URC campaigns saw the Stormers head into their DHL Stadium games against the Bulls needing to win to retain any hope of challenging for anything in the competition.
Last year was a little different as the Bulls game happened later in the season, but their rare home defeat to those opponents, with Clayton Blommetjies missing what should have been an easy match-winning conversion, did hurt them until they regained some equilibrium to their campaign by winning the return game in Pretoria.
Next up is the big one as we ring in 2026 with a full house.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 29, 2025
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The festive season games, though, were must-win games in which the Stormers were able to thrive, and that is what is making the Stormers wary of the position the Bulls find themselves in as they come to Cape Town. Five consecutive losses across two competitions have left their rivals from Pretoria in a hole and facing the same scenario as the Stormers did going into this fixture over the past three seasons.
Can you feel it? The big one is within touching distance.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 29, 2025
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“We know exactly how the Bulls are feeling and how desperate they will be as we have been there, we’ve been where they are now,” said Stormers defence coach Norman Laker.
“When you are on that must-win footing, that feeling you have your backs to the wall, it makes you more desperate and more dangerous, and we know that will be the case with the Bulls when they come here this weekend. We know we are going to be up against a supremely motivated side, and it means we are going to have to be at our best to beat them.”
It always means more when we face @BlueBullsRugby. Be there on Saturday when North and South square off in another epic.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 28, 2025
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The Stormers are in a very different position to the Bulls this time around. They’ve won seven out of seven in the competition, sit on top of the log by two points with a game in hand on the second-placed team. If they were to lose this one, it would be their first defeat in any competition this season and certainly, no matter how it came about, not a reason for Stormers supporters to want to chase coach John Dobson out of the city.
It is a different scenario that his counterpart, Johan Ackermann, faces, with the Bulls making the news during the festive break by dispensing with two senior assistant coaches and also making an approach to SA Rugby to get the help of four Springbok assistants to try and right the ship.
Ackermann voiced his displeasure at the media for “speculating” that those coaches might be involved in this derby week, but what he should really be displeased with is the poor communication from both his organisation and SA Rugby.
We've gone past 40 000 tickets sold and it's not slowing down! This one is going to sell out soon.
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 29, 2025
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The SA Rugby release announcing the deployment of the four coaches came out on a Sunday evening and it did not say that the coaches would not be working for the Bulls during the derby week. If you applied logic to it, it did seem unlikely the assistant coaches would all suddenly join the Bulls in the middle of their holidays, but that did require clarification, and why rush a press release out on a Sunday during the festive season if that is being announced isn’t happening immediately?
A FIRST FOR REINACH
Someone oblivious to the usual sideshows that crop up in a big north/south week is Cobus Reinach, the veteran Bok scrumhalf who has made a good fist of his first few opportunities to play for the Cape team. Reinach started his career at the Sharks but has subsequently been playing his club rugby overseas.
“I haven’t played in South African derbies for a long time, and I’ve never played in this one,” said Reinach, who represented the Sharks from 2011 to 2017.
“Just hearing the boys talk about it, you realise how big it is. It’s going to be physical, it’s going to be a full house, and it’s a proper contest.”
Like Laker, who was sitting alongside him, Reinach laughed off any suggestion the Bulls might be easy pickings for the log leaders.
“If you look at the individuals and the whole team, I don’t think they’re a weakened side or a weak side. I think they were a bit unlucky with a few games and one win and the whole thing turns around and the snowball starts going. We will have to be on top of our gaming in every department.”
The Stormers team for Saturday’s game will be announced on Friday.