The Stormers head into 2026 with an unblemished record thanks to nine straight wins at the start of their 2025/26 campaign in all competitions.
Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson is pleased with his team’s record-breaking start to the season, but believes they still have plenty of room to improve, after they edged the Lions 34-27 in Cape Town on Saturday to end the year (in the current season) unbeaten.
The entertaining United Rugby Championship (URC) win over the Highveld side was their seventh straight in the competition and sees them on top of the log, while they have also won two matches in the Champions Cup, making it nine straight wins since the season started in September.
Despite enjoying their best start to the season since the South African sides moved north, Dobson is hopeful that they can eventually reach the level that they expect of themselves, if they can build on their great start.
Amazing job
“We’re doing an amazing job, but we’re not quite there yet. This was a tough derby, and we’ll be better for the lessons we take from it,” said Dobson.
“There’s something in this group. We don’t have a squad full of big names. It’s just a bunch of guys willing to work for each other and do the ugly, unseen stuff.”
Against the Lions the Stormers had to dig deep, after a poor first half saw them trailing 17-10 at the break, and then despite taking a two try lead in the second half, had to repel a Lions fightback at the death.
“We missed two kick-offs and physically they were on top of us for a large portion of the game. We knew they’d come hard and that we’d have to weather the storm, but I didn’t expect them to get so many yards so easily,” explained Dobson.
“The overriding disappointment for me was how we didn’t close that game out. At 14 points up, we should never have made it that difficult. That’s normally something we’re very good at.”
Good effort
On the Lions front coach Ivan van Rooyen was happy with the effort of his team, but disappointed with a few missed opportunities and how the bounce of the ball didn’t fall their way.
Even though it was their fifth defeat against three wins in all competitions this season, Van Rooyen believes the Lions can build on this performance.
“We played against probably the most in-form team in world rugby. After a performance like that, I’d be surprised if we get into a slump. I’m really proud of the effort,” admitted Van Rooyen.
“I think we played well enough to get the win. One or two moments, the ball bounced back 30m off the cricket pitch. That’s the game, it was really small margins.
“I’m really proud of the effort and really proud of the solutions we found. We lost two No 5 locks in 20 minutes. We showed great character, great fight.”
