STORMERS PREVIEW: Homecoming boost but questions over locks and 4G start

DHL Stormers director of rugby John Dobson has described it as a homecoming season and there is good reason for that - Springbok stars Cheslin Kolbe, Wilco Louw, and Siya Kolisi are all returning stalwarts who will be finishing off their careers where they started.

The Stormers have been busy in the off-season, or indeed in Louw’s case the previous off-season, when it comes to recruitment. Not only are those established stars returning to Cape Town, so is a future star in the form of 2025 World Junior Player of the Year, Haashim Pead.

As is the case with the other three, the late decision made by Pead to get himself out of his contract with the 10Bet Lions is at least part motivated by a desire to be back home.

The Stormers have depth in almost every area, prompting Dobson to speculate at the squad announcement press conference that the 56-man group, which has now been swelled to 57 by the addition of Pead, that it might be the best quality squad assembled in his time. At least on paper.

Rugby is not played on paper, and Dobson is also aware that there is a bit of an imbalance to what he calls the spread of the squad. At scrumhalf that has been partially sorted out by the acquisition of Pead, who became more needed when the equally exciting and promising Imad Khan, who enjoyed his breakthrough season last year, was injured against the All Blacks and ruled out of rugby until at least March.

POTENTIAL SECOND ROW PROBLEM

But at lock the Stormers do have a potential problem following the departures to French clubs of two Springbok locks in Salmaan Moerat and Ruben van Heerden (he became a Bok after playing his last game for the Stormers). Both of those players were important to the Stormers, with Moerat, although he was often injury ridden and not playing, an influential leader as the club captain.

The depth at lock was a strength for the Stormers last season, particularly in the early part when having four locks in the match day squad helped the Cape side wear down opposition and take control physically in the last quarter of matches. JD Schickerling, who was injured for the latter part of last season, will be back and he was arguably the Stormers’ best lock when they had four of them even though he isn’t yet a Bok.

When Schickerling and Adre Smith are both fit and available, Dobson shouldn’t have a problem, but as he says “We need a healthy lock roster”. That, or he needs some of the promising younger locks on his books to develop.

Conor Evans did show pleasing signs in the URC semifinal against Leinster and again against the All Blacks that he may be ready to confirm his promise, while a player who has yet to play senior rugby for the Stormers who a lot might be expected of is Riley Norton.

The Junior Bok captain was selected for the Springboks in their opening international match of 2026 against the Barbarians in Gqeberha and he excelled. He would have played more for the Boks in this southern hemisphere international season were it not for the injury ruled him out for several weeks.

DIXON COULD BE THE ANSWER

He’s fit again and played in one of the Stormers’ warmup fixtures (a loss to the Vodacom Bulls in Paarl) and should make his full competition debut for the Stormers soon.

He is not listed as a lock, but someone we could see quite a lot of at lock for the Stormers is Springbok utility forward Ben-Jason Dixon. He was used occasionally in the position by Rassie Erasmus and has expressed a willingness to train there so that he can play there.

With Hacjivah Dayimani, Ruan Ackermann, Marcell Theunissen and possibly even Norton all capable of playing blindside flank, although some of those players will bring a different dynamic to Dixon when they do, Dobson can get away with playing Dixon at lock and it will be interesting to see how often he does that.

Dixon has been at lock in some of the big Stormers wins of the past, such as the Christmas win over the Bulls in late 2022.

If lock is a potential problem, the front row most emphatically isn’t, with depth at loosehead and tighthead (Vernon Matongo, Ntuthuko Mchunu and Oli Kebble are joined by Junior Bok Oli Reid at loosehead and at tighthead there are three Boks in Zachary Porthen, Louw and Neethling Fouche) and growing depth at hooker, where Vernon Paulo impressed in the Currie Cup season.

AHMED AND MULLER ARE SPECIAL PLAYERS WHO COULD COME THROUGH

Front row and back row aren’t a problem for the Stormers, and neither is flyhalf - Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is backed up by Jurie Matthee, who played well in the URC semifinal against Leinster, and Junior Bok Yaqeen Ahmed, who is a special player. Then there is veteran Jean-luc du Preez, who can also play centre, and another talented youngster in Kyle Smith.

Speaking of youngsters, the depth of the Stormers will be decided by how well some precociously talented youngsters such as Ahmed and centre Markus Muller come through. The latter played for the Stormers XXIII in the Currie Cup and looks to be developing nicely and the 19-year-old is poised to add to the solitary cap he earned as a substitute in the big win over Glasgow in April.

Kolbe’s return will answer a need for more speed out wide, something that Dobson feels might also be answered by the good form shown by Mfundo Ndhlovu in the Currie Cup, while Seabelo Senatla staying fit will also help.

Leolin Zas was relied on a lot last season and it is why the next time he plays for the Stormers he will be earning his landmark 100th cap.

NEED TO OVERCOME 4G OBSTACLE

Will that be in Friday night’s game against Connacht in Galway? That cues the first obstacle for the Stormers - they have an away start this season. Not only that, they will be playing their first two games on the 4G surfaces - Connacht and Edinburgh - that they are notoriously uncomfortable on.

In the last off-season Dobson promised to work on ways to improve the Stormers’ overseas form and it worked. They got off to a spectacular start when it came to overseas games, winning their first five across both the URC and Investec Champions Cup.

At the end of the last league season, which concluded with defeats on 4G surfaces away to Ulster and Cardiff, Dobson vowed to sort out that problem and Friday night will be a big test for that.

It is a test in other ways too for while the Stormers have added star quality to their group the Boks won’t be available for the opening game, and of course Kolbe not until December because of the broken jaw sustained early in the third test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

Last season was the exception to the general rule that the Stormers start slowly, which has left them playing catch-up later on, and they will want to avoid that but their start is a tricky one if you consider they have a derby against the Sharks to face once they’ve returned from Edinburgh.

The Sharks won both of the coastal derbies played last year and like the Stormers should be full strength for the 10 October clash.

The Stormers’ logistical challenge around the Investec Champions Cup games should be easier to deal with this season because of the change to the fixture list, which now sees the first two games being played as individual games spread across a weekend in mid-October and one in mid-December instead of in clumps of two.

The Stormers host the Bristol Bears on 17 October in their first Champions Cup game and there will be a lot of focus on that as the South African teams desperately need to improve in the elite European competition and the Cape side has the star quality to go deep this time around.

DHL Stormers 26/27 squad (DHL Stormers caps in brackets - * denotes under-21 players): Neethling Fouché (114), Oli Kebble (57), Sazi Sandi (52), Wilco Louw (52), Vernon Matongo (22), Ntuthuko Mchunu (19), Zachary Porthen (15), Hencus van Wyk (2), Herman Lubbe* (1), Olly Reid* (1), André-Hugo Venter (89), JJ Kotzé (58), Lukhanyo Vokozela (4), Vernon Paulo (0), Luca Bakkes (0), JD Schickerling (74), Adré Smith (69), Connor Evans (40), Gary Porter (19), Riley Norton* (0), Deon Fourie (141), Siya Kolisi (118), Marcel Theunissen (95), Evan Roos (87), Ben-Jason Dixon (86), Hacjivah Dayimani (64), Paul de Villiers (36), Keke Morabe (19), Louw Nel (13), Ruan Ackermann (10), Wandile Mlaba* (2), Divan Fuller* (0), Stefan Ungerer (47), Imad Khan (18), Cobus Reinach (9), Haashim Pead (0), Ezekiel Ngobeni (0), Jayden Brits* (0), Jean-Luc du Plessis (61), Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (53), Jurie Matthee (29), Yaqeen Ahmed* (1), Kyle Smith* (0), Ruhan Nel (90), Wandisile Simelane (41), Jonathan Roche (16), Markus Muller* (1), Josh Boulle (0), Leolin Zas (99), Seabelo Senatla (74) Cheslin Kolbe (49), JC Mars* (3), Mfundo Ndhlovu (1), Joel Leotlela (0), Gino Cupido* (0), Damian Willemse (118), Warrick Gelant (77).

DHL Stormers 2026/2027 Fixtures

Connacht (Vodacom URC, Connacht, 25 September 8:45pm)

Edinburgh (Vodacom URC, Edinburgh, 2 October 8:45pm)

Hollywoodbets Sharks (Vodacom URC, Cape Town, 10 October 4pm)

Bristol Bears ((Investec Champions Cup, Cape Town, 17 October 4:15pm)

Scarlets (Vodacom URC, Cape Town, 24 October 4pm)

Ulster (Vodacom URC, Cape Town, 31 October 2:45pm)

Hollywoodbets Sharks (Vodacom URC, Durban, 5 December 5pm)

Bordeaux-Begles (Investec Champions Cup, Bordeaux, 13 December 5:15pm)

10Bet Lions (Vodacom URC, Cape Town, 19 December 4pm)

Vodacom Bulls (Vodacom URC, Cape Town, 3 January 4pm)

Gloucester (Investec Champions Cup, Gloucester, 9 January 3pm)