DHL Western Province will not be making use of any players that have been identified as Vodacom United Rugby Championship players for the Stormers at the start of the forthcoming Carling Currie Cup campaign.
WP, who failed to make the play-offs in the domestic competition last year, start their season with a north/south clash with traditional rivals, the Vodacom Blue Bulls, in Cape Town on Saturday evening.
The captain will be announced on Friday but this season the Province challenge will be fronted by a different group of coaches, with Stormers director of rugby John Dobson stepping out of the coaching role he occupied in 2024 and allowing Labeeb Levy to take over as head coach.
Levy will have former Stormers stalwart Brok Harris with him as his forwards coach while former Benetton scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenage, who is also still playing as he homes in on a landmark number of Stormers caps in the next URC season, will be working with the backs.
Someone who himself was a player-coach towards the end of his playing days, former Springbok centre Brendan Venter, will be helping guide the transition into their coaching roles of that pair in his position as a consultant.
“I am really learning a lot from him, the energy that he brings and just being a good rugby brain,” said Harris of Venter’s input during the pre-season.
“Brendan and Labeeb bring a lot of experience and it’s been a good experience for me so far.”
While veteran hooker Scarra Ntubeni, who is now 34 and heading into his final season, was sitting next to Harris, the recently retired Stormers frontranker said there would be a heavy emphasis on youth and perhaps tapping the Western Cape’s extensive amateur resource base during this Currie Cup campaign.
“Those who are identified as URC players are going into pre-season, so we will be also making use of the Under-20s, good club players and also some experienced guys who have not played a lot in the URC,” said Harris.
The players who this week returned from the successful Junior Springbok campaign will not be playing in this weekend’s game against a Bulls team that has six Junior Boks in the squad named on Monday, but several of them can expect to be drawn on later on in the domestic season.
WP Under-20 have enjoyed a successful recent run and there will be several players looking to use the Currie Cup to make a successful transition to senior first-class rugby.