Big Durban interest in Sharks' quest to break long drought

The South African national cricket team may discover to their chagrin as they go into the first day of their test at Kingsmead that it does rain a lot in KZN at this time of year, but on Saturday there’s a different kind of drought that needs to be broken for Durban rugby supporters.

The DHL Stormers are coming to town for an eagerly anticipated Vodacom United Rugby Championship derby against the Hollywoodbets Sharks, and after a series of near misses, John Plumtree’s team will be eager to break the long period of domination that their coastal rivals have enjoyed in coastal derbies.

Clearly the Durban rugby public has cottoned onto the significance of the game, for the Sharks have announced on their social media platforms that the lower tiers of the Hollywoodbets Kings Park stadium have already been sold out, which means seats in the upper tiers will go on sale for a URC/Sharks game for the first time in a long time.

Are you ready for this?😮‍💨@vodacom #URC #SHAvSTO pic.twitter.com/n4u0LLRp63

— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) November 26, 2024

THIRST FOR SUCCESS AGAINST COASTAL RIVALS

The Stormers are of course a big drawcard at all venues in South Africa, and their game against the Vodacom Bulls last year sold out Loftus, which doesn’t happen anymore at franchise level unless it is a final. But there’s also an obvious eagerness to see a long drought against the arch-rivals from Cape Town broken.

You have to go back to early 2021 to the last time the Stormers lost to the Sharks, and that was a Rainbow Cup game in Cape Town during the dark days of Covid, when there was limited fan involvement in the games. It was the first time that Siya Kolisi lined up against his old Stormers teammates, having crossed the floor a month earlier after the Sharks had edged Western Province in a tightly fought Currie Cup semifinal at Newlands.

You have to go even further back to find when the Sharks last beat the Stormers in Durban in a full strength competition (the under-strength version of the Currie Cup shouldn’t be counted as that is a development competition more than the real deal). It was in fact the 2020 Super Rugby game at Kings Park, the last time the two sides ever met in that competition and it was played as Covid arrived and rugby was suspended.

That was in fact the only time that John Dobson has lost as Stormers coach at Kings Park, and the Sharks have never beaten the Stormers in the URC. The closest they came was the very first game they played against each other in the cross-hemisphere competition, in February 2022, when after dominating the first hour of the game in Durban the Sharks inexplicably faded and the Stormers managed to escape with a draw.

THAT HAS BEEN THE ORDER OF THINGS EVER SINCE

The return game was played at DHL Stadium just a week later, with the Stormers winning more comfortably than the seven point margin may have suggested, and that has been the order of things between the two teams ever since. Of course, it isn’t just the Sharks among South African teams who the Stormers have had the wood over - until the Vodacom Bulls broke the sequence at Loftus last year, the Stormers hadn’t lost to another local team since December 2021.

And up to this point, the Bulls defeat is the only reverse to a South African side in that period. This weekend’s game though is arguably the best chance the Sharks have had in a long time to break the coastal derby drought, with the Stormers ravaged by injury. Dobson will only name his team on Friday, but the Springboks missing include Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff, Salmaan Moerat, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos, Damian Willemse, Deon Fourie plus a clutch of other potential first choice players like Ben Loader. Sti Sithole, the first choice loosehead in the absence of Kitshoff, was also out injured before the international break.

While the Sharks are likely to be without two significant players in the form of Bok strongmen Eben Etzebeth and Ox Nche, who were both injured towards the end of the November tour, Sharks coach Plumtree is likely to select all his other available Boks - and there are a lot of them.

For a start the versatile World Cup winner Trevor Nyakane is there to team up with fellow Boks Bongi Mbonambi and Vincent Koch in the front row if, as has been the trend, he does not instead add impact from the bench instead. That’s not to mention the capabilities of another Bok, Ntuthuko Nchunu, one of the best if not the best ball carrying front row forwards in the country, while Ruan Dreyer, a former Emirates Lions player, is also a capped Bok.

There’s more second row depth to cover for the likely absence of Etzebeth now that former Leinster and Bulls stalwart Jason Jenkins is playing for the Durban franchise, where he joins the promising Corne Rahl plus Emile van Heerden in an impressive array of tall timber, while the Sharks now have an extra Tshituka brother to call on, Immanuel, since the last time these two teams met in February.

PACE AND X-FACTOR OUT WIDE

At the back there are two Bok scrumhalves to choose from in Jaden Hendrikse and Grant Williams, while the other Hendrikse, Jordan, should have sky high confidence after his good game for the Boks in Cardiff last week. Outside of them, and let’s not forget Siya Masuku is the other Sharks flyhalf, there is X-factor and pace to burn in the form of Lukhanyo Am, Ethan Hooker, Makazole Mapimpi and Aphelele Fassi.

All of that should make the Sharks strong favourites, or to put it another way, if they don’t beat the Stormers in this game then you have to wonder if they ever will. The Sharks are definitely in the better form of the two teams, with comfortable wins against Glasgow Warriors and Munster being scored before the start of the international break.

The Stormers did score a good win against Munster in Cape Town but in their last game they were outplayed by the URC champions, Glasgow Warriors, in Stellenbosch.