Seven days after being humiliated 41-3 by Boland Kavaliers without scoring a single try, the DHL Stormers XXIII delivered the response Cape Town needed. A five-try demolition of the Hollywoodbets Sharks XV at DHL Stadium sent the coastal rivalry back in their favour, 36-28, and reminded the Carling Currie Cup Premier Division that this young Stormers side is not finished yet.
Nobody inside DHL Stadium needed reminding how bad the Boland scoreline had looked. A 75 percent tackle success rate and zero tries in 80 minutes had raised serious questions about the group’s structures heading into round three. Those questions got answered inside four minutes of this one, though not in the way the home fans wanted.
Lyle Matthews finished off a clean break in the third minute to open the scoring for the Sharks, and Tim Swiel’s conversion made it 7-0 before most fans had found their seats. It was the kind of soft start that had cost the Stormers XXIII a week earlier. This time, they answered instantly.
Vernon Paulo barged over in the seventh minute, Kyle Smith slotting the extras to level things up. The Stormers XXIII flyhalf would go on to have the game of his season with the boot, but it was the platform up front that set the tone. Wandile Mlaba added a second try in the 21st minute, finishing from the base of a ruck and converted again by Smith, and the hosts had wrestled the lead away inside the opening quarter.
“This is exactly the response we wanted to see from the Stormers XXIII after Boland — no panic, no hiding, just direct answers on the scoreboard!” – 🎙️Jay
The Sharks were not done in the first half. Ross Braude crossed in the 33rd minute in a well-worked try to bring Durban back within two points, Swiel converting again, before the story of the afternoon arrived two minutes later. Markus Muller, just 19 and making his Carling Currie Cup rugby debut at outside centre, capped off a spell of sharp passing with a clean break to score his first try in the competition. Smith missed the conversion, but the Stormers XXIII still led 19-14 at the break, and the derby had its defining moment.
Muller was one of eight changes to the Stormers XXIII starting side for this fixture, handed his shot alongside fellow Junior Springbok World Champion Danie Kruger and hooker Altus Rabie among the replacements. All three had been thrown into a group still stinging from Wellington. A senior head coach might have hesitated. Instead, the youngster repaid the faith with the sort of finish that gets remembered long after this scoreline fades.
Kyle Smith stretched the Stormers XXIII advantage further with a penalty shortly after the restart, in the 42nd minute, and the derby looked to be settling into home control. It didn’t stay that way for long. Rambo Kubheka powered over for the Sharks in the 55th minute, and Swiel’s conversion swung the lead back to the visitors at 22-21 — suddenly the Stormers XXIII were chasing the game they had led for most of the afternoon.
They responded in the way that mattered most. Josh Boulle finished off excellent handling in the 63rd minute, set up by Ezekiel Ngobeni, to put the Stormers XXIII back in front. Six minutes later, a driving maul was finished off by replacement Xola Nyali to make it 33-21 and put real daylight on the scoreboard. Smith converted both, closing out a near-flawless day off the tee that yielded 11 points from the boot alone.
The Sharks were not finished chasing the bonus point. Liam van Wyk, on for the visitors’ front row, scored a late consolation try in the 72nd minute, converted by substitute fullback Luan Giliomee to bring the gap back to eight points. But there was no way back from there. The Stormers XXIII saw out the closing stages to close out a 36-28 win that halts the early-season slide and lifts them off the bottom half of the Currie Cup Premier Division log.
For a group that shipped six tries without reply against Boland Kavaliers just seven days earlier, this was the exact kind of statement response Cape Town supporters had been waiting for. Muller’s try on debut will be the headline moment, but it was the collective refusal to fold — twice conceding the lead, twice taking it back — that will matter most heading into the next round.
📸 Images via Stormers / Currie Cup
