CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 24: Deon Fourie and Ruhan Nel during the DHL Stormers training session at High Performance Centre on February 24, 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
The Stormers are hoping some introspection will help them get over their United Rugby Championship (URC) slump, after losing their last three games, when they face the Bulls in a massive north-south derby at Loftus on Saturday.
All three of their defeats have come against South African sides, having gone down to the Sharks back-to-back in Cape Town and Durban, before a disappointing performance led to a poor loss to the Lions at Ellis Park just over a week ago.
The losses have also seen the Stormers slide from the top of the table in mid-January to fifth on the log, and a fourth straight defeat could see them slip even further. This would put them in range of both the Bulls and Lions going into the final six matches of the league’s pool stage.
The Stormers are thus going all out in training this week in preparation for the vital clash, especially to make up for last week’s training which was disrupted due to the first Springbok alignment camp of the year.
“Last week a lot of guys went to the alignment camp, though I think the Bulls probably had more guys there,” said Stormers director of rugby John Dobson.
“So we took a couple of days off and then had a really good session on Friday. I think with the alignment camp we couldn’t have prepared any better.
“Obviously given our recent results there is a lot of introspection going on. It sounds hard to say where do you stop, but we have gotten to a point of being excited for what we want to do (against the Bulls).”
Player boost
The Stormers could be in for a nice player boost going into the game, with Ruhan Nel, Deon Fourie and Dan du Plessis available for selection, while Seabelo Senatla is also on the cusp of making a return from injury.
But Dobson conceded that they wouldn’t want to risk throwing too many players straight into what should be a monstrous encounter against a physical Bulls team on the Highveld, and that is something they have to balance when making their selection.
“It’s great having those guys available again, but you’ve got to manage it properly. Loftus is not the easiest place to throw someone straight back in after a long injury,” said Dobson.
The Bulls themselves went through a terrible patch earlier this season when they lost seven games in a row in all competitions, but they have since bounced back with four straight wins, including massive results over the Lions (52-17) and Sharks (41-12), making Dobson weary of their power game.
“They’ve definitely gone back to a lot of that traditional Bulls power. The way they took the Lions apart at Ellis Park, running close to the breakdown, pick-and-go’s, big one-off runners, that was very powerful and direct,” said Dobson.
“There is definitely a Bulls power, that traditional power element to their game, that we’ve seen of late.”
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