Deon Fourie, right, and his Stormers teammates have been preparing in 40-degree heat for their URC match against the Bulls
Image: BackpagePix
In South Africa, there are local derbies and then there is the North-South derby between the Bulls and the Stormers.
South African United Rugby Championship derbies are normally a big step up in physicality from other matches. It is fierce and not for the faint of heart. But matches between the Bulls and the Stormers are less of a sporting contest and more of an 80-minute car crash. It is essentially an MMA bout, but without the punching and kicking.
The last match between the two teams on January 3 in Cape Town was as brutal as they come. Sitting in the stands, the crowd winced with each hit. You could hear a big tackle clearly, even sitting amongst 50,000 other screaming fans. And you could feel it too.
The match itself was not much of a spectacle, but a battle of attrition. The pressure and physicality of the occasion got to the players, with both teams making a plethora of mistakes.
The Stormers prevailed 13-8 at the end of the night. However, they were then forced to rest their big players after that taxing encounter and went on to suffer a 61-10 defeat at the hands of Harlequins in a Champions Cup match in London.
It was their first defeat of the season. The Stormers headed back to Cape Town to beat Leicester and qualify for the knockout stages of that competition, but they haven’t managed to get a win since then, with successive defeats against the Sharks and a loss to the Lions spoiling their unbeaten URC run.
On Saturday, they have a chance to right the ship when they face the Bulls at Loftus (2:00 pm kick-off) in the latest instalment of the North-South derby. According to the returning Springbok forward Deon Fourie, they will not lack any motivation when they head to Pretoria this weekend.
“It's always special playing against them. It gets the best out of you — it's the rivalry, the intensity, the contact,” said Fourie, who is set to play his first game for the Stormers since 10 October, when he suffered a bicep injury against the Scarlets.
“I think that's why we play games like this. Dobbo [coach John Dobson] mentioned that if you put out an advertisement in Cape Town about who wants to play against the Bulls at Loftus, there would be 20,000 applications. It's such a great game to be part of.”
For Fourie, returning to this environment and such a big match after a two-year injury nightmare is a daunting prospect. At 39, he is well aware that a Bulls-Stormers clash does not offer a gentle return to action.
When asked about the mental fortitude required to step back into the line of fire, Fourie was candid about the trepidation that naturally creeps in.
“I won't lie to you. When the team was selected, that's the first thing that got into my mind — just to get through the game,” admitted Fourie, who has played just five matches in the last two years following a serious knee injury and an ankle injury to go with the bicep layoff.
“But I've learned through 20 years of my career that when you make that first contact, everything goes out the window and you just go on with your job.”
Since their last meeting, the Bulls have won four of their five matches in all competitions, including big wins in their last two outings against the Lions and the Sharks. They are peaking at just the right time, while the Stormers have clearly gone backwards after flying out of the blocks at the start of the campaign.
But form normally goes out of the window in these derbies, with the team that comes out on top in the physical battle normally winning the encounter. Fourie knows this all too well as the Stormers were taken through their paces in 40-degree heat in Cape Town this week to prepare for the mother of all SA derbies.
“The physicality? I think that's where it becomes cliché,” Fourie said of the looming battle.
“That's where the game will be won or lost. But luckily we had an off week last week after we played the Lions. So hopefully the guys will be fresh. The last two days were a bit difficult in the heat, so hopefully the guys recover well.”