Sparkling Stormers confirm they’re derby kings

News24 Sport chief writer

Unbeaten in 10 South African derbies in the United Rugby Championship … and increasingly likely to retain the SA Shield this season.

That is the enviable position the Stormers - quickly back in “normal service” after a rare pasting in Belfast two rounds ago - find themselves in as the 2022/23 run-in phase looms.

hey inspiringly engineered a 57-point swing in baking Durban on Saturday, turning that 5-35 outcome against Ulster into a 46-19 triumph over local coastal rivals the Sharks.

Many pundits were entitled to anticipate a much tighter match at Kings Park than transpired, as John Dobson’s free-running charges banked a full house of five log points … after getting several selections in a much-altered lineup spot-on.

It almost certainly crowns the tournament’s defending champions as “derby kings” for a second season in succession … unless they take thumping defeats from remaining all-SA clashes against the Bulls at Loftus (18 February) and the Capetonian return date with the Sharks on 4 March.

Since the inception of the URC in 2021, the Stormers have played 11 derbies – including the final last season against the Bulls in the Mother City – and won 10 and drawn one of them.The only reverse was the very first one: when they tackled the Lions at home straight after all four SA outfits had returned from difficult four-match tours each in the northern hemisphere to open their URC accounts.

The Johannesburg side earned a surprise 37-19 result in Cape Town; the only minor "blemish" since for the Stormers in derby terms was last season’s 22-22 Durban stalemate.

So Saturday’s crushing win took to double figures their unbeaten sequence in local skirmishes.

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