The Hollywoodbets Sharks removed any question marks over the turnaround that was signalled in Cape Town last week by scoring another emphatic win, this time 36-24, over the DHL Stormers in a furiously contested Vodacom URC derby in Durban on Saturday.
After the 30-19 win seven days earlier there was no denying that the Stormers conspired against themselves, and there will doubtless be Cape fans who will be rightly frustrated at the bizarre error made by fullback Warrick Gelant that gifted the Sharks the try that put daylight between the Sharks and the Stormers in what had been a close game.
With the game heading into the last 10 minutes, and the Sharks ahead 31-24 after a see-sawing contest, Gelant dropped back behind his own line to field a probing kick that had resulted from a poor kick from Stormers captain and flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Gelant took his time dotting down and was way too Harry Casual, and it gave the pacy Sharks wing Jaco Williams the opportunity to race in and touch down under Gelant’s nose.
If you snooze, Williams will cruise! 🦈
— vodacomrugby (@VodacomRugga) January 31, 2026
A closer look at an incredible try by Jaco Williams.
Hollywoodbets @SharksRugby
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It was an inexcusable error that was reminiscent of the Robbie Fleck/Deon Kayser incident, when Stormers centre Fleck thought he was through for the try and then hit from behind by the flying Kayser, that cost the Stormers in a Super Rugby game between these two teams back in 2000.
SHARKS WERE JUST THE MUCH BETTER TEAM
But it would be wrong to make too much of an issue of the incident, for while it did mean that instead of pushing for the win in the last few minutes when they were camped on the Sharks line they were playing for just a losing bonus point, there was no denying that the Sharks were significantly the better of the two sides in the game.
The Stormers started fast this time, and a turnover penalty near the Sharks line in the first minute was quickly tapped by Cobus Reinach as he went over for the first try after just 40 seconds.
Lightning strikes within seconds in Durban! ⚡️⚡️
— vodacomrugby (@VodacomRugga) January 31, 2026
Cobus Reinach scores for the DHL @THESTORMERS within seconds of the kickoff.
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But while the Stormers were also ahead later in the game, when shortly after halftime Paul de Villiers scored a brilliant try that put his team 10 points ahead, they were outplayed in most areas of the game by a supremely motivated Sharks team that has in the past two games shown huge pride in their jersey and have dramatically vindicated the work that JP Pietersen is doing as interim coach.
The Sharks may still lack a bit of attacking shape, but this was always going to be a game where the humidity was going to make the field kicking so important and the Sharks dominated the collisions for most of the 80 minutes.
WON THE AERIAL DUEL HANDS DOWN
The Sharks won the aerial duel hands down, with Aphelele Fassi so much sounder in that area than his opposite number, who on the day was his fellow Bok fullback Damian Willemse.
Williams and Bok Edwill van der Merwe were brilliant on the chase, and while the Stormers’ first-half lineout display was marginally better than the previous week in Cape Town, it was the home team that dominated both the territory and possession stats.
The team that applies the pressure is usually the one that gets the better of the penalty count and that proved true in this game, while the two yellow cards the Stormers conceded, the first to De Villiers after 10 minutes and then later the one to lock Ruben van Heerden, proved pivotal in deciding which way the game would go.
De Villiers was carded after a collapsed maul and it has to be said that just like the Gelant brain fart late in the game was symptomatic of what has gone wrong for the Stormers, so was that period of play.
Paul de Villiers goes to the bin for collapsing the maul 🟨👇
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) January 31, 2026
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The Stormers had several opportunities to exit as the Sharks camped in their 22, but kept making poor decisions and somehow it just felt almost inevitable that the Sharks would capitalise.
MONSTER SACHA KICKS GAVE DISTORTED IMPRESSION AT HALFTIME
Which they did once the Stormers were reduced to 14 men with De Villiers’s yellow card with Grant Williams going over the line.
The Bok scrumhalf would have been a strong challenger for the man of the match award that was eventually rightly given to his magnificent captain Andre Esterhuizen.
A captain’s performance! 👏👏
— vodacomrugby (@VodacomRugga) January 31, 2026
Andre Esterhuizen is the Man of the Match as he leads @SharksRugby to back-to-back wins over the DHL @THESTORMERS.
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The Jordan Hendrikse conversion put the Sharks in front and 13 minutes later Ethan Hooker went through the middle from close range to score his team’s second try as they capitalised on quick ball and some decisive play from scrumhalf Williams.
Ethan Hooker takes the gap!
— vodacomrugby (@VodacomRugga) January 31, 2026
Try number 2 for @SharksRugby gives them the lead.
Hollywoodbets @SharksRugby
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But in between those two scores Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked two penalties so it was 14-11 to the Sharks with 16 minutes remaining of a pulsating and bruising half of rugby.
It felt like the Sharks would draw further ahead as they had the momentum, the ball and the territory but Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked two prodigious penalties in quick succession just before halftime to put the Stormers into an unlikely 17-14 lead.
HOSTS GOT BACK IN AFTER VAN HEERDEN’S CARD
When De Villiers went over for his converted try and there was a 10 point gap it was game on with the Sharks chasing, but the game was changed when Van Heerden was yellow carded at a defensive lineout.
The Sharks were brilliant in exploiting the extra man advantage, first wing Williams running off scrumhalf Williams from a channel close to the forwards to draw his team back and then Esterhuizen capping his fine game with a try that regained his team the lead (28-24).
Let it be said there was some rather strange refereeing at scrum time and the Stormers will feel probably quite correctly that the penalty Hendrikse kicked from a scrum penalty to make it a seven point game should have been a scrum penalty to them, and there were a few more of those.
Yet with Salmaan Moerat out injured and probably missing for quite a while, the Stormers never had the supersonic bomb squad for this game that had helped them engineer gear shifts on their eight match winning run, and it always felt like it was the Stormers who were the team hanging in against a side that on the day was just significantly better than they were.
The Sharks will feel sorry they go into a three-week break now as they’d surely like to keep the momentum that they have picked up, but the Stormers will appreciate the four weeks that they have off before they play the Lions at Ellis Park at the end of this month.
If they can regroup they will be okay as they did build up a considerable buffer with their strong start to their campaign.
SCORES
Hollywoodbets Sharks 36 - Tries: Grant Williams, Jaco Williams 2, Ethan Hooker and Andre Esterhuizen; Conversions: Jordan Hendrikse 4; Penalty: Jordan Hendrikse.
DHL Stormers 24 - Tries: Cobus Reinach and Paul de Villiers; Conversion: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu; Penalties: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 4.