Back in the days when the Springboks and what were then known as the South African franchises were always playing at separate times, meaning when this country wasn’t committed to rugby competitions all year round, it was easy. You could pile up on national players and just be proud.
Times have changed. DHL Stormers director of rugby John Dobson spoke recently about how in the last two weeks of the current phase of the season before the international break, he was partly focusing beyond just the here and now but also towards the challenge his team’s face when business at club level resumes in early December.
The Stormers head to Durban first up for their Vodacom URC return derby against the Hollywoodbets Sharks on 5 December and he knows the Sharks will be in a vengeful mood after they were outplayed by his team in Cape Town a few weeks ago.
Coming just six days after the Boks complete their Nations Cup campaign in London, Dobson knows it will be asking a bit much of his Boks if he presses them into action at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
A week later there is an Investec Champions Cup away game to champions Bordeaux-Begles, so that’s two tough games, and then the 10Bet Lions come to Cape Town a few days after that for another URC derby.
It was with all of this in mind that Dobson gave Yaqeen Ahmed and Markus Muller starting opportunities against Scarlets last week, and he is looking to further build Ahmed’s playing capacity for a potential lead role in the Durban game in December by starting him at No 10 against Ulster on Saturday.
BIT OF A CURVE-BALL
So it would be understandable if he considered the selection of three youngsters who have only just started their senior careers at the Stormers to the Bok squad for the November tour as a bit of a curve-ball. If Ahmed is playing in the Finals Day at Twickenham six days before the Kings Park fixture, can he stick to his initial plan?
It is hoped Jurie Matthee will be back from injury by then, and you can see from that why it is so necessary for all the clubs to build depth like never before, but the loss to the Boks of Ahmed, Muller and Riley Norton, with the latter now a regular in match day squads, does create a challenge for the Stormers mentor.
In that at the very least he won’t have those players in the weeks building up to the Stormers’ return to action where much of the planning for Durban (and beyond) should happen.
The pendulum has certainly swung in South African rugby. There was a time when the Stormers bosses were looking at what was happening in Durban and considered it a mistake that the Sharks had so many Boks on their books. Back then, the Sharks were by far the most represented club in the national squad.
Now it is the Stormers, with 12 players in the 37-man squad that starts out their November odyssey in Italy next week. And don’t be too surprised if, should there be an injury overseas and the Stormers’ newest recruit Bongi Mbonambi gets through his return off the bench against Ulster unscathed if he doesn’t end up making it 13.
FINE LINE BETWEEN HAVING ENOUGH BOKS AND TOO MANY
“We always want to find a fine line between having a lot of Springboks (and not having that many),” said Dobson after announcing a reshuffled Stormers team for Saturday’s fifth round URC match at DHL Stadium.
“It would be nice to have them in the middle. It’s a consequence of your success, because we want to bring these youngsters through, and when we do, they get picked for the Springboks. But at the same time it is fantastic for our project. So that narrative is super important for us.”
Dobson is right. He may not have looked at using Norton, who was a Junior Bok World Junior World Championship winning captain in 2025 when he was 19 and is now still only 20, had Bok coach Rassie Erasmus not selected Norton for the Barbarians game in Gqeberha back in June.
It wasn’t a Bok test cap game but Norton played well and that immediately partially eased Dobson’s concerns about his shortfall of talent at lock subsequent to the departure for France of two Bok locks, Salmaan Moerat (who is back in the national squad) and Ruben van Heerden.
And last year Dobson, who had already contracted Bok tighthead Wilco Louw to return to Cape Town from the Vodacom Bulls, suddenly found he had more Bok props than he expected due to the selection to the national squad of Zachary Porthen, another recent Junior Bok captain (Injured Bok legend Frans Malherbe was still officially a Stormers player, as he is now).
PORTHEN IS NOW AN ESTABLISHED BOK
Dobson wasn’t expecting Porthen to come through as quickly as that and in truth he still has a bit to learn, as you’d expect from someone so young in a position where players tend to mature late, but he’s played some good international games and is now an established Bok.
Norton, Muller or Ahmed, or a combination of those names, could come through as established Boks too if they get playing opportunities on tour and take them, and there’s an obvious boon in that for the Stormers in terms of the experience they will gain.
Being exposed to the coaching of Erasmus and his management is also something that brings massive benefits for any player, as the young Stormers trio may have already discovered from being part of the Bok squad in the build-up to the Barbarians game - with the SA A side playing Zimbabwe on the same day.
But at the same time, it is just a fact that these days having a lot of Boks does create challenges, as Dobson has noted.
“It’s going to present some challenges, especially when we’ve got, God willing, the Springboks playing the final of the Nations Championship on 29 November. We’re playing in Durban the following Saturday.
“But the message being sent out is that if you want to be a Bok, come to the Stormers. That’s brilliant. It presents hurdles for the management, but in the bigger picture it is fantastic.”