“Who is the Stormers No 6, he’s an absolute beast?” The person asking the question via Whatsapp was Grant Bashford, a former assistant to John Plumtree at the Sharks (in his first gig that ended in 2013) and currently head coach at Kearsney. It was the eve of the Springbok/Argentina Rugby Championship test at Kings Park in late September last year.
The Stormers were playing Leinster in their first match of the new Vodacom URC season on the television screens at a popular pub/restaurant in Glenashley, just outside Durban. So not that long ago.
And the question was also being asked by someone who knows his way around rugby and watches almost every URC game involving a South African team, if not live then certainly on replay afterwards for analysis purposes.
Yet it was a reasonable question to be asked less than 11 months ago, for Paul de Villiers had only played a clutch of games for the Stormers. Yes, he’d impressed towards the latter stages of the previous URC season, but even Stormers coach John Dobson and his assistants seemed surprised at how quickly the product of Oakdale College adapted to senior league rugby.
Indeed, on the eve of the kick-off to the 2024/2025 season, at the annual new jersey unveiling function, I asked a Stormers assistant coach if this might be the breakthrough season for the former national age-group captain. The answer wasn’t wholly positive, “We think he is going to be very good, but we don’t think he’s quite ready yet. Don’t worry, his time will come."
Well, it came just a few months later, and it came quickly when it did - although maybe, just maybe, the Stormers coaches may not be the right people to ask when it comes to the burgeoning talent they work with, for Zachary Porthen has been pushed far quicker by Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus than he was being at the Stormers, and Riley Norton played for the Boks before he has played a game for the Stormers.
Not that they can necessarily blamed, it just seems the schools and age-group systems are producing star quality players on a more perennial and consistent basis than used to be the case, and let’s not forget that the 23-year-old, the star newcomer and arguably the Bok player of the home leg of the Nations Championship, wasn’t slated to play such a prominent role at the start.
Paul de Villiers was simply outstanding during the first three rounds of the #NationsChampionship in that 6⃣ jersey 💪🇿🇦#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/xInwJQL5l3
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 20, 2026
De Villiers wasn’t even in the match day squad that was announced by Erasmus on the Monday before the first game against England at Ellis Park. He’d only played a bit part in the Bok win over the Barbarians in the opening game of the season in Gqeberha a fortnight prior to that, and with Siya Kolisi named in his regular No 6 jersey and as the captain, De Villiers spent most of that week expecting to watch from the Ellis Park stands.
It all changed quickly, and he told us after his impressive debut against England that he was only made aware of his role on the morning of the game. He speculated then that maybe he was helped by not having the nerves that go with being part of the buildup all week.
His elevation to start in Kolisi’s injury enforced absence worked a dream, and while he emptied the tank in doing so and had to be replaced at the halfway point, he played a massive part in the creation of the 17-0 platform that laid the foundation for his team’s 45-21 victory.
He was probably originally destined to make his test debut against Scotland at Loftus, and would have trained with that team during the week, so he was one of the few players chosen to back up in Pretoria what had been started in Johannesburg.
And he didn’t disappoint, following up his six carries in 46 minutes at Ellis Park, plus 10 completed tackles and 32 metres made with eight carries across 58 minutes at Loftus, 16 tackles and another 64 metres made with his carries (7.8 metres per carry as against 5.2 metres a week earlier).
In both those first two games he completed one turnover, while in his most recent game, the 43-0 win over Wales, he completed three on the way to his first official man of the match award in the green and gold. His carrying stats weren’t as impressive in terms of distance travelled (3.2 metres per carry and 45 metres made off 14 carries), with his game time this time lasting 80 minutes, but he did carry a phenomenal 16 times.
It was a scrappy game played on a slippery surface with a slippery ball which may explain the fewer metres made, but it was again an outstanding and busy allround performance from the omnipresent flank, who completed 13 tackles to go with his 16 carriers.
Another week where Paul de Villiers puts in an epic performance 💥#SSRugby #NationsChampionship pic.twitter.com/qrkp7tgstX
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 12, 2026
In his early career De Villiers was often likened to the phenomenal ball scavenger of a previous Bok era, Heinrich Brussow, but if Brussow was as good a ball carrier as De Villiers is and as big a threat with ball in hand then my memory is failing me.
De Villiers has consistently said that he doesn’t just want to be seen as a “fetcher”, and indeed if you look at his stats across his first three games he’s making his own statement along those lines.
It leaves Erasmus with a quandary to keep him awake at night, not that he ever sleeps, in the buildup to the Greatest Rivalry Series, for he is expecting his regular captain Kolisi back in the warmup game against the Los Pumas in Buenos Aires on 8 August.
De Villiers has done more than enough to suggest he wouldn’t let the team down if given a first opportunity to face off against the All Blacks.