Currie Cup · Round 2
Boland Cavaliers
Stormers
Boland Stadium, Wellington
Championship Standings
This is the only unbeaten-versus-unbeaten fixture of Round 2 outside the Cheetahs, and the log shows how little separates these two — Boland 3rd and the Stormers 4th, both on four points from one win, split only by points difference (+14 plays +6). The Cheetahs have already broken clear on nine after hammering the Sharks XV 43–21 on Friday. The winner in Wellington goes second and stays in touch; the loser drops into the pack with a genuinely brutal fixture list still ahead.
| Pos | Team | P | W | L | PD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Cheetahs | 2 | 2 | 0 | +24 | 9 |
| 2 |  Sharks XV | 2 | 1 | 1 | -20 | 5 |
| 3 | Boland Cavaliers | 1 | 1 | 0 | +14 | 4 |
| 4 | Stormers | 1 | 1 | 0 | +6 | 4 |
| 5 |  Lions | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 2 |
| 6 |  Pumas | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 2 |
| 7 |  Griquas | 1 | 0 | 1 | -6 | 1 |
| 8 |  Bulls | 1 | 0 | 1 | -14 | 0 |
Boland Cavaliers
W2, L3The 24–10 win over the Bulls XV was exactly the Boland template: a packed, rain-soaked Boland Stadium, two maul tries scored by front-rowers Joshua Eras and Dayan van der Westhuizen, and a defensive effort Hawies Fourie called out by name afterwards — "I have to give credit to our forwards for biting the bullet." They led 14–3 at the break and never let the Bulls back in. Read the rest of the list carefully, though: four of the five games here were away, and the three defeats before the break all came on the road. Boland are a very different proposition in Wellington than outside it.
Stormers
W2, L3The rebrand has started with a statement. Down 12–8 at half-time, reduced to 13 men at one stage in a card-strewn opener, the Stormers XXIII still beat the reigning champions 25–19 through Stefan Ungerer's 79th-minute try — ending an eight-match losing run against Griquas that stretched back to 2020. That is a bigger scalp than anything the old Western Province side managed in a wooden-spoon 2025. Note also the last two entries on this list are wins, and the one before that was a 40–22 dismantling of Boland — this group is trending sharply upward off a very low base.
Head-to-Head Record
1 – 1 – 7
Boland wins · Draws · Stormers/W. Province wins (last 9 meetings since 2015)
Boland Cavaliers (1)The Cape side owns this fixture. Across nine meetings since 2015 — Currie Cup, SuperSport Rugby Challenge and Vodacom Cup — Boland have won once, drawn once and lost seven. Worse for the hosts: not one of those results came in Wellington. At home Boland are 0-1-3 in this rivalry, the closest call a 24–24 SuperSport Challenge draw in June 2018, alongside a 28–35 loss in 2017, 14–25 in 2016 and 10–25 in 2015. Their solitary win was in Cape Town — a 22–21 smash-and-grab in June 2019. The most recent meeting was the ugliest: 40–22 to Western Province in Cape Town in September 2025, one of only two wins the Capetonians managed all season.
Recent Results
| Date | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | Currie Cup | Stormers 40–22 Boland |
| Jun 2019 | SuperSport Challenge | Stormers 21–22 Boland |
| Jun 2018 | SuperSport Challenge | Boland 24–24 Stormers |
| May 2018 | SuperSport Challenge | Stormers 23–21 Boland |
| Jun 2017 | SuperSport Challenge | Stormers 22–8 Boland |
| May 2017 | SuperSport Challenge | Boland 28–35 Stormers |
Average score in the last 6 meetings: Stormers 27 – Boland 20 across the nine meetings. Six of the nine were decided by seven points or fewer — this is usually tight, and the Cape side usually finds the last score.
Extended Form
Boland Cavaliers5W, 4L (last 12 months)
The 2025 Currie Cup — wins over the Cheetahs (37–35), Lions (29–10), Bulls (28–20) and Pumas (29–26); losses to Griquas (39–48), the Sharks XV (31–33) and Western Province (22–40), then a 19–67 semi-final defeat to the Lions — plus the 24–10 opening win over the Bulls XV in 2026.
The pattern is unmistakable: four of Boland's five wins in the last year came in Wellington, and every one of their four defeats came away from it. In their return to the Premier Division they went unbeaten at home and reached a first semi-final since 1952, then were exposed 67–19 the moment they left it for a knockout at Ellis Park. Hawies Fourie has a settled, physical, low-error side that squeezes tight games at home — and gets found out when the game gets loose or the venue changes.
Stormers2W, 6L (last 12 months)
A grim 2025 as Western Province — one win from seven (40–22 over Boland), with defeats to the Bulls (23–48), Lions (19–40), Griquas (17–47), Cheetahs (24–31), Sharks XV (21–29) and Pumas (13–39) for a −99 points difference and the wooden spoon — followed by the 25–19 win over champions Griquas to open 2026.
The raw record still looks awful, but it is describing a team that no longer exists. Tom Dawson-Squibb's Stormers XXIII is a rebuilt, professionally-stocked side — Oli Kebble, Scarra Ntubeni, Gerbrandt Grobler, Stefan Ungerer and Cornel Smit are men with URC and Test-level mileage, not development-squad filler. Beating the defending champions with 13 men on the field at one point is a far better indicator of this group than anything from last August. Treat the 2025 numbers as a different team's homework.
Boland Cavaliers XV
Three starting changes from the Bulls win. The headline is at loosehead: Alistair Vermaak — long-serving Stormers and Western Province prop — makes his Boland debut against his former team. Gift Dlamini earns a first start in a loose trio alongside captain Thurlow Marsh and Khwezi Mafu, and Domenic Smit shifts to fullback to cover James Tedder, who limped off after seven minutes last week with a swollen knee (no ligament damage, but he misses out). Recent front-row recruit Heiko Pohlmann is set for his debut off the bench, with David Brits back in the 23. Fourie has otherwise kept the backline untouched, backing the combinations that won last week; Jayden Bantom retains the kicking duties.
Stormers XV
Continuity is the theme — just one change to the XV that beat Griquas. Flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis is out with a minor knee injury, so Dominic Malgas, who kicked well off the bench in the opener, steps up to 10. Scrumhalf Stefan Ungerer, matchwinner with a 79th-minute try last week, takes over the captaincy for the derby. On the bench, lock Gary Porter returns from international duty with the Zimbabwe Sables and utility back Kian Davis is in line for his Currie Cup debut. "We have some good continuity in the team this week," said Tom Dawson-Squibb. "Wellington is renowned as a tough place to play, so we know we will have to make a step-up."
Key Matchups
The one place Boland genuinely own is the maul and the pick-and-go — both their tries against the Bulls came from front-rowers off drives, and Thurlow Marsh's trio is built to grind. Alistair Vermaak's debut against his former club adds edge to a scrum that will decide whether Boland get the platform they need. Everywhere else the Stormers have more pedigree: Grobler and Barnard should own the lineout, Ungerer is the sharpest 9 on the park, and a bench carrying Scarra Ntubeni, Junior Bok prop Hencus van Wyk and Tiaan Fourie is a level above Boland's. The route home for the hosts is obvious and narrow — keep it in the tight third, kick for corners, make it a set-piece arm-wrestle in front of a full house. If Malgas gets time and Cupido and Ndhlovu see space in the wide channels, this gets away from Wellington quickly.
Match Forecast
The scorecard lands at −4, which is the classic trap zone: everything on paper says Stormers, but the model's break-even sits at roughly −7 because home advantage is systematically underpriced, and −4 is a narrow home win. The Stormers are the better-resourced side by a distance — Kebble, Ntubeni, Grobler and Ungerer are URC-grade operators against a genuine small union — and they own the fixture 7-1-1 since 2015. Against that sits the single biggest number on the card: Boland have not lost at Boland Stadium in the Premier Division since returning to it, beating the Cheetahs, Lions and Bulls there, and their 24–10 win last week was a set-piece mugging in front of a full house. Hawies Fourie's team squeeze low-scoring games; that is precisely the game they will try to play.
What could go wrong is the same thing that has gone wrong all decade in this fixture: the Cape side finding the last score. Six of the nine meetings were decided by seven points or fewer and Boland lost most of them. The Stormers also have the bench to win a close finish — Ntubeni and van Wyk arriving at 55 minutes against a thinner Boland pack is exactly how a tight arm-wrestle unravels — and Ungerer proved last week he will still be there at 79 minutes. Boland's other worry is scoreboard pressure: Domenic Smit is a shuffled 15 covering the injured James Tedder, and if this becomes a track meet rather than a maul contest, Cupido and Ndhlovu have far more finishing than anyone in orange. Take the hosts, but only just.
Boland by a score in a set-piece grind — the Wellington fortress just outweighs a better-stocked Stormers side that has won seven of the last nine.
Boland have never beaten this opponent at home in the modern era: a 24–24 draw in 2018 and defeats in 2017 (28–35), 2016 (14–25) and 2015 (10–25).
Western Province/Stormers lead the last nine meetings with seven wins, one draw and one defeat — Boland's only win came 22–21 in Cape Town in June 2019.
Boland have won every Premier Division match at Boland Stadium since promotion — the Cheetahs (37–35), Lions (29–10) and Bulls twice (28–20, 24–10).
The Stormers XXIII's 25–19 win over Griquas ended an eight-game losing run against the champions stretching back to 2020, sealed by Stefan Ungerer's 79th-minute try after spending part of the game down to 13 men.
Loosehead Alistair Vermaak makes his Boland debut against the Stormers — the union he spent his professional career with.
Outside the Cheetahs, this is Round 2's only meeting of two sides with 100% records — third versus fourth, four points each, separated by eight points of difference.