By Gavin Rich.
The postponement of their first-round fixture last September has left the two coastal teams with one more to play in an unbroken sequence that stretches back over 11 weeks across two competitions, but the stakes are too high for there to be any let-up for the Cell C Sharks and the DHL Stormers.
While the Emirates Lions and the Vodacom Bulls have gone into a three-week break before a doubleheader of derbies on 18 February, the Sharks and the Stormers are preparing for a coastal derby at HollywoodBets Kings Park on Saturday that will have a big bearing on both the Shield standings on the respective positions of the teams on the overall log.
It is a game that has also been made more appetising by the fact that a Stormers/Sharks game has become a bit of a rare event – last year they played each other in the last weekend of January and the first week of February home and away in the URC. And they haven’t met since the Stormers beat the Sharks in the return clash at the DHL Stadium exactly a year ago this weekend.
If you consider that the Stormers and Bulls have played against each other thrice since then, and the Stormers and Lions have also clashed three times, it is understandable why this game is being universally described as eagerly anticipated.
There’s more to it than just the fact they haven’t played each other often recently, there’s also the small matter of the Sharks’ American equity partners having been rejected by Western Province before they linked up with the Durban franchise, and the surprising Stormers success in last year’s URC when they were regarded as the least financially strong South African franchise.
Stormers coach John Dobson, just this week named as the South African Coach of the Year for 2022, has noted that his team seems to have a target on its back these days, but he also accepts that comes with the territory when you ascend to champion status. The Bulls, after four successive defeats to their arch-rivals, will also be thirsting for revenge when the Stormers travel to Pretoria two weeks after the Durban game.
While the Stormers were more comfortable winners than the seven-point winning margin they enjoyed in Cape Town last time the sides met, the game in Durban seven days earlier was one that the Sharks butchered.
The hosts outplayed the visitors for the first hour, and were more than two scores ahead going towards the final quarter and looking certain winners. But then a combination of the Stormers’ never say die attitude and some naive rugby from the Sharks saw the Stormers bounce back to earn an unlikely draw off the last move of the game.
There were two penalty tries included in that Cape fightback, but while referee Marius van der Westhuizen was given the bird by the Kings Park crowd afterwards, both were merited.
The Stormers were completely dominant in the final quarter and they carried that momentum into the following week’s game.
It is hard to say who is the favourite going into this game. The Stormers have a great record against fellow South African teams, and that draw one year and one week ago was the closest they have come to losing to a local franchise since their shock home defeat to the Lions in December 2021.
While the Stormers did lose badly to Ulster in Belfast last week, it was far from a first-string selection and there were other mitigating circumstances, such as two 11th-hour withdrawals from the team and then three players leaving the field within the first 16 minutes.
The Stormers have confirmed that the likes of Manie Libbok, Joseph Dweba, Dan du Plessis, Hacjivah Dayimani and other first-choice players who were rested or injured for the trip to Belfast will be back in the selection mix this week. That should make them a very different proposition to what they were against Ulster.
At the same time, the Sharks, although they will lose Ox Nche and Thomas du Toit from last week’s team to Springbok resting protocols, will go in with momentum after their great, gutsy win over Edinburgh.
Their alternative team hasn’t earned many kudos in recent times, but they say defence shows attitude, and there was plenty of that from the Sharks at the DAM Health Stadium as they hung in under intense pressure in the closing stages of a hard-fought 22-19 win.
One potential factor could be the weather. The game was switched from Friday night to Saturday at 2pm and if it is a hot day in Durban, the Stormers could struggle with the humidity at that time of day. At the very least, the slippery ball will prevent the Stormers from giving expression to their impressive ball-in-hand attacking game.
However, the weather forecast for Durban for Saturday suggests there might be rain in the morning, which could mean that while a wet weather game might be on the cards, it won’t be played in the stifling humidity that naturally the Sharks are more used to as they train in it all the time.
The Stormers need to win to get back some momentum after two successive defeats that have brought the Bulls back into the reckoning in the race for Shield honours – the Pretoria team is five points adrift with the Stormers having a game in hand – while the Sharks need to win to make up some of the 12 points that separate them from the Shield leaders and current second placed team overall.