A passionate Ruben van Heerden believes that the DHL Stormers can comply with Vodacom URC title-holders Munster’s path and end stronger than ever this season.
Munster wrote themselves into rugby folklore by ending the Stormers’ then record-winning run at Cape City Stadium final April, earlier than the Crimson Military returned to Cape City a month later to dethrone the defending champions and win their first main silverware since 2011.
Regardless of ending the common season in fifth spot and after a disappointing begin to the marketing campaign, Graham Rowntree’s males claimed away victories over the Glasgow Warriors and Leinster within the quarter-finals and semi-finals that despatched them again to the Mom Metropolis.
The Stormers are at present in fifth place on the URC standings with 4 rounds till the playoffs, and talking on the Behind the Ruck podcast with former Springboks Rudy Paige and Juan de Jongh, Van Heerden mirrored on their winless tour earlier in 2023-24 whereas acknowledging his work price and sport time.
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“I’m loving enjoying as a lot rugby as potential,” the 26-year-old lock mentioned. “I’m actually the man who hates going off the sector, I hate being subbed!
“I like the final 10, quarter-hour of a sport whenever you actually need to dig deep. Jy’s moeg [but] you must go into these darkish locations.
“And we maintain talking about how unhealthy our tour was in the beginning of the URC, and now it’s such as you’re driving on grime roads attempting to make up for these factors we missed there.
“However we’re assured and we’re optimistic about the place we are able to nonetheless find yourself within the URC and the way issues can play out. Have a look at Munster final 12 months; nonetheless a bit painful [for us] … however something can occur.”
Van Heerden, who joined the Stormers in 2022, is loving each minute enjoying for the Capetonians, however the Alberton-born skyscraper shared a ‘coronary heart wrenching’ expertise as a young person watching Western Province beat the Sharks within the 2012 Currie Cup remaining at Kings Park.
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“I by no means envisioned myself enjoying for the Stormers or thought it might be potential, and I had no good motive for not liking the Stormers however I at all times mentioned, ‘I’ll by no means play for the Stormers’ and ‘no, I don’t just like the Stormers’. And mockingly that’s simply how issues labored out,” he mentioned.
“I bear in mind for my sixteenth birthday – I used to be an enormous Sharks supporter – my mother and father saying we’re going to fly to Durban, sleep within the lodge, and watch the Currie Cup remaining.
“And we’re sitting behind the poles and I’m screaming for my Natal and Sharks boytjies, and subsequent factor Jubba [De Jongh] is below the poles – Gangham Fashion – and I believe, ‘jis, jy’s horrible’… breaking 16-year-old hearts.
“At that stage I believed I’d by no means play for the Stormers, however actually now I can inform you there’s no crew that I’ve loved enjoying for extra and I actually love the Stormers greater than something.”
The Stormers subsequent face Ospreys at Cape City Stadium on 20 April within the URC.
Photograph: @THESTORMERS/Twitter