DHL Stormers vs Vodacom Bulls
The Official Matchday Programme for the United Rugby Champions Grand Final DHL Stormers vs Vodacom Bulls | URC Saturday 18th June, 2022 | Kick off 6.30pm | DHL Stadium
The Official Matchday Programme for the United Rugby Champions Grand Final
DHL Stormers vs Vodacom Bulls | URC
Saturday 18th June, 2022 | Kick off 6.30pm | DHL Stadium
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FEISTY FOURIE ON<br />
FIRE FOR THE FINAL<br />
Deon Fourie was winning turnovers in a <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong><br />
jersey in 2008. All that has changed is that he is now<br />
winning turnovers in a <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> jersey.<br />
<strong>DHL</strong>, who signed with the <strong>Stormers</strong> and WP in 2011, are<br />
the longest-serving sponsors of professional rugby<br />
in the Western Cape in the history of the union and<br />
franchise, and when reporting on Fourie’s exploits, he<br />
is comfortably the longest-serving of those players<br />
who will front the <strong>Vodacom</strong> <strong>Bulls</strong> in<br />
“<br />
the inaugural and historic <strong>Vodacom</strong><br />
United Rugby Championship at the <strong>DHL</strong><br />
Stadium on Saturday.<br />
Fourie first wore the franchise jersey in<br />
2008, left in 2014 and returned in 2021.<br />
If he was good when he left, he is even<br />
better now and his Springboks squad<br />
selection is confirmation of his class and<br />
reward for his performances this season.<br />
Fourie has played 15 of the <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> 20<br />
<strong>Vodacom</strong> URC matches this season and before that he<br />
played six times for <strong>DHL</strong> Western Province.<br />
He returned to Cape Town after a decade in France’s<br />
Top 14 to mentor youngsters for the provincial side, but<br />
within a fortnight <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> coach John Dobson<br />
recognised that Fourie was still as good a player as he<br />
was a mentor.<br />
‘He is just world class,’ raved Dobson. ‘He is averaging<br />
four turnovers a game, hugely influential in everything<br />
he does and just an outstanding team player. He can<br />
play in the loosies and he can play hooker. He is a dream<br />
player, in quality, and also a dream individual to have in<br />
the squad as a person. He is just so inspirational.’<br />
Fourie will play his 100th match for the <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> on<br />
Saturday evening, 15 years after playing his first match.<br />
When he left in 2014, he’d played 85 times for the<br />
<strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> and 90 times for WP. He now sits on 96<br />
matches for <strong>DHL</strong> WP, with that century sure to come<br />
in the 2022/23 season.<br />
For now, all the attention is on the <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> and a<br />
100th cap that Fourie had never considered possible when<br />
he left South Africa to seek a new<br />
IF HE WAS GOOD<br />
WHEN HE LEFT,<br />
HE IS EVEN<br />
BETTER NOW”<br />
challenge in France.<br />
It was a challenge he got as a<br />
player and an adventure he enjoyed<br />
individually and with his family.<br />
Fourie played 91 times for Lyon<br />
between 2014 and 2019 and 42 times<br />
for Grenoble between 2019 and 2021.<br />
Wherever he has played, he has<br />
been lauded, as a rugby player and as a person.<br />
‘He has had an exceptional season. His experience,<br />
talent, hard work and sacrifice means a lot to the<br />
squad and hopefully it will be the same for the<br />
country,’ said <strong>DHL</strong> <strong>Stormers</strong> captain and Springbok<br />
front rower Steven Kitshoff.<br />
Fourie, despite his incredible season, speaks first of<br />
his younger teammates, their energy, their humility<br />
and the privilege of being a part of their journey.<br />
But you speak to any of the youngsters in the group<br />
and the first name they will mention is Fourie, who,<br />
should he debut internationally later this season, will at<br />
35 years-old become the oldest 1st-Test Springbok in<br />
the country’s history.<br />
18.06.2022 - <strong>DHL</strong> STADIUM, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA #STOVBUL<br />
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