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HOLLYWOODBETS SHARKS DHL STORMERS

KICK-OFF 17H00 VS

MATCH PREVIEW

COASTAL CLASH, ROUND #2

Like two heavyweight boxers slugging it out, the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Stormers last week engaged in one of rugby’s iconic rivalries. André Esterhuizen delivered the knockout punch in the 73rd minute, handing the Capetonians their first loss in the current Vodacom URC. It is a feud fueled by intense traditional animosity, and today’s rematch, in the Shark Tank, promises to be another thrilling, brutal bout…

Table Mountain provided the backdrop to a remarkable 30-19 victory for the Hollywoodbets Sharks. It signalled the Stormers’ first defeat in the 2025–26 Vodacom United Rugby Championship, ending an eight-match winning streak for the Cape-based franchise.

The Stormers were floored within the first five minutes when big Jason Jenkins powered across for the opening try from an attacking lineout. The home side managed to get up off the canvas a couple of minutes later, though, through Damian Willemse, who went on to record a brace of tries in the first half.

More speed and movement from the Hollywoodbets Sharks enabled 20-yearold whiz-kid, Jaco Williams, to run in another try for the men in black to go into halftime 17-12 up. The hard-grafting Phepsi Buthelezi recorded a third shortly after

the break, and the Durban-based warriors applied relentless pressure throughout the second half.

The body punching had the desired weardown effect when, with less than 10 minutes left, a marauding maul shunted Esterhuizen, who led from the front all day long, across from 20 metres out for the bonus-point try that sealed the contest.

However, the job is not yet done, as the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Stormers will again do battle in the sweltering heat and humidity of Durban today. Esterhuizen alluded to the fact during the press briefing earlier this week.

“Last Saturday produced a tough and brutal game, but that’s the thing about South African derbies: you need to be up for it every week,” the captain said.

“There is still a lot of room for improvement, and we are working hard on certain aspects of our game. For us to play a game like that against the Stormers, even though there is still so much to improve on, is a positive sign.

“Everyone is in the right mindset for today’s return encounter at Hollywoodbets Kings Park; we appreciate that a one-off performance like last week is not enough. We need to back it up.

“The Stormers will definitely be fired up today; they want to prove a point. We expect them to come with everything they’ve got. “We know what’s coming, though; we realise the challenge. And, we’re up for it.

“This is our last game before we can enjoy a bit of a break, and we want to enter the break in a positive frame of mind. There is massive motivation for today.”

"LAST SATURDAY PRODUCED A TOUGH AND BRUTAL GAME, BUT THAT’S THE THING ABOUT..."

Following this weekend’s round of Vodacom URC fixtures, the tournament will enter a month-long recess due to the Six Nations championship in Europe.

However, the Hollywoodbets Sharks will be in action a week earlier than the rest of the URC, when they head up to Johannesburg to take on the Lions on February 21.

WORDS: ALBERT HEENOP

VICTORY WAS SWEET, DESPITE SCRUMMAGING NOT BEING UP TO STANDARD

The Hollywoodbets Sharks pack sets high standards, and powerhouse prop Hanro Jacobs feels they didn’t exactly live up to those standards in the sensational 30-19 win against the Stormers in the Vodacom URC last weekend.

Jacobs and the rest of the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ version of a “Bomb Squad” have become renowned for having a positive influence at scrum time when they join proceedings, and after he and fellow prop, Springbok ace Ox Nché, had entered the fray in Cape Town last Saturday, they duly did enforce some telling scrum penalties in the second half.

Jacobs, in particular, appeared to put Stormers loosehead Vernon Matango under considerable pressure at times.

“To be frank, our scrums weren’t exactly up to standard, at least not like we are used to,” he acknowledged, though.

“We were probably fortunate on a couple of occasions to be awarded scrum penalties. We weren’t entirely dominant all the time, and some of those penalties were merely a result of the Stormers setting illegally.

“We want to enforce penalties through being dominant.

“Personally, I also felt that it wasn’t one of my best scrummaging performances. However, that is something that we focused on a lot during the past week.”

The Hollywoodbets Sharks have indeed emerged as the No. 1 scrummaging team in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship. They have won 66 scrums and lost only one, with a scrum winning percentage of 99%, and have won 31 scrum penalties thus far.

“It’s a pack thing, really,” Jacobs says.

“All the forwards, the front five and back five, including the loose forwards, have all bought in at scrum time, and forwards coach Phillip Lemmer also pushes us extremely hard. It certainly isn’t a one-man show.

“However, there are a few individual efforts that do help. For example, I have learnt so much from Ox, Bongi (Mbonambi) and Vincent (Koch) in terms of their vast experience and superior skill.”

Despite the scrums not functioning on all eight cylinders, the victory over the Stormers nevertheless tasted very sweet for 25-year-old Jacobs, and more so since he was born, bred and schooled in the Cape.

“I used to be a Stormers fan at school and am mates with quite a few of the guys in their setup,” he says. “JJ Kotzé (hooker)

and I attended Paul Roos together, so it was particularly pleasing to put one over him.

“The odds were stacked against us, but everyone in the group believed that we would win. We believe that we are good enough to win every time we take to the field.

“The Stormers will come with a vengeance today; they are smarting, but we are ready.”

SHARKS

1.95m

BORN: 20/01/2003 HEIGHT: 1.94 m WEIGHT: 98KG

30/05/1999 HEIGHT: 1.86m WEIGHT: 107KG WEIGHT: 105KG GRANT WILLIAMS BORN: 22/06/1996 HEIGHT: 1.74m WEIGHT: 77KG

SWART PHATU GANYANE

BORN: 20/10/2000 HEIGHT:

01/10/1996 HEIGHT: 1.81

HOLLYWOODBETS SHARKS

APHELELE FASSI

EDWILL VAN DER MERWE

ETHAN HOOKER

ANDRE ESTERHUIZEN (C)

JACO WILLIAMS

JORDAN HENDRIKSE

GRANT WILLIAMS

PHEPSI BUTHELEZI

VINCENT TSHITUKA

SIYA KOLISI

EMILE VAN HEERDEN

CORNE RAHL

HANRO JACOBS

DAMIAN WILLEMSE

DYLAN MAART

WANDISILE SIMELANE

JONATHAN ROCHE

LEOLIN ZAS

SACHA FEINBERG-MNGOMEZULU (C)

COBUS REINACH

EVAN ROOS

BEN-JASON DIXON

PAUL DE VILLIERS

RUBEN VAN HEERDEN

ADRÉ SMITH

NEETHLING FOUCHÉ

JP PIETERSEN

MANAGER

TREVOR BARNES HEAD COACH

FEZ MBATHA OX NCHE

EDUAN SWART

PHATU GANYANE

VINCENT KOCH

JASON JENKINS

NICK HATTON

JADEN HENDRIKSE

SIYA MASUKU

JURENZO JULIUSSIYA

KICK OFF 17H00

REFEREE

CHRISTOPHER ALLISON

ANDRÉ-HUGO VENTER

OLI KEBBLE

KOTZÉ

NTUTHUKO MCHUNU

ZACHARY PORTHEN

SCHICKERLING

MARCEL THEUNISSEN

STEFAN UNGERER

JURIE MATTHEE

WARRICK GELANT

ASSISTANT REFEREES

COLBY, JONATHAN LOTTERING TMO

QUINTON IMMELMAN

DHL STORMERS PLAYER PROFILES

VENTER

BORN: 18/06/1992 HEIGHT: 1.91m WEIGHT: 145kg

BORN: 04/06/1997 HEIGHT: 2.01m WEIGHT: 117kg

FOUCHÉ

BORN: 10/09/2001 HEIGHT: 1.87m BORN: 10/01/1993 HEIGHT: 1.87m WEIGHT: 106kg WEIGHT: 118kg

BORN: 21/01/2000 HEIGHT: 1.91m BORN: 27/10/1997 HEIGHT: 2.00m WEIGHT: 109kg WEIGHT: 124kg

BORN: 13/01/2003 HEIGHT: 1.80m WEIGHT: 99kg

DHL STORMERS PLAYER PROFILES

BORN: 21/03/1998 HEIGHT: 1.79m WEIGHT: 95kg

BORN: 06/11/2000 HEIGHT: 1.84m

WEIGHT: 111kg

BORN: 03/09/1996 HEIGHT: 1.85m WEIGHT: 77kg

BORN: 05/04/1999 HEIGHT: 1.88m

WEIGHT: 114kg

BORN: 07/05/1998 HEIGHT: 1.85m

BORN: 31/03/2004 HEIGHT: 1.89m

BORN: 07/02/1990 HEIGHT: 1.75m WEIGHT: 85kg

BORN: 20/10/1995 HEIGHT: 1.84m BORN: 22/02/2002 HEIGHT: 1.85m WEIGHT: 93kg WEIGHT: 90kg

BORN: 29/04/1998 HEIGHT: 1.98m WEIGHT: 106kg BORN: 01/02/2003 HEIGHT: 1.88m WEIGHT: 95kg

BORN: 09/05/1995 HEIGHT: 2.03m WEIGHT: 99kg WEIGHT: 121kg

BORN: 09/06/1999 HEIGHT: 1.92m

BORN: 04/11/2000 HEIGHT: 1.91m

WEIGHT: 90kg BORN: 22/11/1993 HEIGHT: 1.81m

BORN: 20/05/1995 HEIGHT: 1.78m WEIGHT: 94kg

WEIGHT: 124kg WEIGHT: 89kg WEIGHT: 96kg

MARCEL THEUNISSEN

DYLAN MAART

WANDISILE SIMELANE

DAMIAN WILLEMSE

MAJOR MATCHUP KOLISI VS

DE VILLIERS

He might be heading back to the Cape following the Vodacom URC, yet Siya Kolisi still has plenty to offer in the Shark Tank over the next few months.

Coach JP Pietersen once again praised the legendary Springbok skipper’s unique lead-ership and potent presence, even though it was a cameo performance off the bench, in the stunning 30-19 victory over the Stormers last weekend in Cape Town. “You can’t coach leadership, and he was born with it,” Pietersen observed.

Back in the starting lineup for today’s massive encounter, 34-year-old Kolisi will also have a profound role to play in what is expected to be a brutal battle at the breakdown, with the instinct and skillset that have established him as one of the leading tearaway flankers in world rugby.

At 23 years of age, he might be Kolisi’s junior by 11 years, yet Paul de Villiers certainly plays with the maturity of a seasoned campaigner in the Vodacom URC.

The four man-of-the-match awards that he scooped so far this season are a case in point, and the product of Hoër Landbouskool Oakdale in the Western Cape has certainly ce-mented his place as a key player for the Stormers.

A former Junior Springbok captain, he has been a breakdown blitz for the Capetonians, both on attack and in defence, while he is also a powerful ball carrier. In addition to his athletic ability and high work rate, De Villiers is also a born leader and has a rosy future ahead of him.

FACTS, STATS & TRIVIA

STATS SHOW SHARKS’ SUPREMACY

For those doubting Thomases still out there, the match stats in the Cape prove that the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ sensational victory over the Stormers last weekend was no fluke…

Apart from the comprehensive 30-19 scoreline and the fact that the Hollywoodbets Sharks outscored the Stormers by four tries to three (which included a penalty try), André Esterhuizen and his warriors emerged superior in all the departments that mattered.

Did you know:

* The Hollywoodbets Sharks enjoyed ascendancy in both possession (58%) and territory (53%).

* They offloaded the ball six times to the Stormers’ five, and beat 23 defenders as com-pared to the Stormers’ 14.

* The Hollywoodbets Sharks forced the Stormers to make 155 tackles, while they them-selves required only 88 tackles. The Durbanites lost only seven turnovers, two fewer than the Stormers (9).

* They enjoyed 85% lineout success compared to the 67% of the Stormers, who lost six of their lineouts.

* As far as discipline is concerned, the home side conceded 13 penalties to the nine of the Hollywoodbets Sharks, who also enforced five scrum penalties through sheer su-premacy in the tight phase.