The All Blacks will face the Stormers in the first of four games against URC teams on tour of South Africa.
Stormers veteran Deon Fourie is fired up for another crack at the All Blacks when Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series kicks off in Cape Town on Friday night. Picture: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images
The Stormers’ own Lazarus, Deon Fourie, is fired up for another crack at the All Blacks when Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry (RGR) tour officially kicks off at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night.
Fourie, just over a month shy of his 40th birthday, has once again defied the odds to recover from a serious injury, to continue a playing career that could have been ended by a number of other big injuries over the past few years.
He is now in the frame to face the All Blacks for the second time, but the first for his franchise, in the opening match of the RGR series, which is a match that many of the players will be unable to ever experience again.
“It’s a massive occasion. We have spoken about how fortunate it is to get one game against the All Blacks. Probably 80 or 90 percent of these guys won’t get that opportunity again,” explained Fourie during a Stormers press conference on Monday.
“If you don’t get into the Springbok setup you will never face the haka or play against the All Blacks. So what a massive occasion and I think 50 years on (since the last time the Stormers faced the All Blacks during a tour), we get that opportunity again as a union to play against a Test side.”
Over the past couple of years Fourie has picked up ACL, fractured tibia and torn bicep injuries, and most recently in the URC against Ulster earlier this year suffered a medial ligament tear after a dangerous croc-roll that required surgery.
‘I am ready’
“I am ready (to play). It’s been about 10 or 11 weeks since the operation. Fitness wise I will only be able to tell you if I play on Friday how that is. But I am definitely ready to go and I have been looking forward to this match since it was announced a year or two ago,” said Fourie.
Fourie’s one appearance against the All Blacks to date came in the 2023 World Cup final, when he was thrown into the deep end at hooker in just the third minute of the match after Bongi Mbonambi went off injured.
“I can’t really remember much about those 77 minutes, they went past so quickly. But it is a great memory,” said Fourie.
“You always hope you can play them again. The last two years I have had bad luck with injuries so I didn’t know if I would still be able to play this year. But fortunately everything went well and I get an opportunity again to face the haka.”
Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani elaborated on the enormity of the occasion, calling it a “once in a lifetime experience”.
“What a massive opportunity for our players, coaches and for Stormers rugby. This is something we are really excited about and something we are really looking forward to. We feel like it’s one of those once in a lifetime experiences that might never come back again,” said Hlungwani.
