The DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls will renew their rivalry in round 8 of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in Cape Town.
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The teams meet at the DHL Stadium for the seventh time in the Vodacom URC, with the home side currently on a six-game winning streak over their opponents.
It will be the first north-south meeting between the two teams since the Stormers won the quarter-finals 33-21 in Cape Town last season, with Manie Libbok scoring 18 points against his former team.
The Stormers won the first Vodacom URC match of the inaugural season, 30-26, at Loftus Versfeld, where another former Bull, Warrick Gelant, came off the bench to set up the winning try, scored by Paul de Wet.
The Stormers hosted the Vodacom Bulls in the Grand Final in the 2021-22 season. The home team won yet again, with Libbok scoring eight points, including a late drop goal, to lead them to their first major title, 18-13.
John Dobson wrote his name into Stormers folklore by guiding the Western Cape team to their first piece of major silverware, in the 2021-22 Vodacom URC.
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‘It’s brilliant for South African rugby,’ Dobson said last season. ‘I do also feel it, we all do. This feels like proper stuff. It came up when Jake came in and did such a great job of rebuilding the Bulls and they won two Currie Cups in one year.’
‘The rivalry has been developing over social media stuff, us getting a couple of narrow wins and in the final.’
Since taking over as director of rugby and head coach of the Vodacom Bulls in 2020, his counterpart, Jake White, has led a revolution.
White, who coached the Bulls to back-to-back Currie Cup titles in his first two seasons, is still looking to lead the team to a cross-hemisphere championship.
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‘The Stormers are the benchmark,’ White admitted, after last season’s quarter-final loss. ‘The model is simple, I’m not saying that it’s easy to get, but they have a good scrum, efficient lineout, strong defence and, when Manie’s kicking well at goal, it becomes so difficult to catch up once they get scoreboard pressure.’
‘I need to find who we need to have that x-factor, good set-piece and have that style. It’s obviously something that works in this competition.’
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Photo: Carl Fourie / Gallo Images