Currie Cup · Round 1
Stormers
Griquas
DHL Stadium, Cape Town
Championship Standings
The 2026 Currie Cup Premier Division opens with this fixture, so there is no live table yet — the rows below are the final 2025 regular-season log, carried across every Round 1 report for consistency. The story it tells could not be starker for these two: Griquas finished 2nd and then went the whole way, beating the Lions 27–25 with the last kick of the final at Ellis Park for their first title since 1970. Western Province — now rebranded and competing as the Stormers XXIII — finished dead last at 8th, one win from seven and a points difference of −99. The champions travel to the wooden-spooners; on 2025 evidence there is a chasm here.
| Pos | Team | P | W | L | PD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Lions | 7 | 5 | 2 | +97 | 26 |
| 2 | Griquas | 7 | 5 | 2 | +48 | 25 |
| 3 |  Cheetahs | 7 | 4 | 3 | +6 | 23 |
| 4 |  Boland Cavaliers | 7 | 4 | 3 | +3 | 23 |
| 5 |  Pumas | 7 | 3 | 4 | +54 | 21 |
| 6 |  Bulls | 7 | 3 | 4 | -9 | 15 |
| 7 |  Sharks XV | 7 | 3 | 4 | -100 | 14 |
| 8 | Stormers | 7 | 1 | 6 | -99 | 6 |
Stormers
W1, L4The last competitive rugby played under this jersey was grim: one win from seven, six defeats, a −99 points difference and the wooden spoon. The single bright spot — a 40–22 win over Boland on the final day — flattered a campaign in which they shipped 47 to Griquas, 40 to the Lions and 39 to the Pumas. But there is a giant caveat: this is not that team. Western Province now plays as the Stormers XXIII, a rebranded, better-resourced development side drawing on the full DHL Stormers professional system under new head coach Tom Dawson-Squibb — so the 2025 log is a warning, not a verdict.
Griquas
W4, L1These are the reigning champions, and they closed 2025 like champions. After a dead-rubber hammering by the Lions in the final regular-season round, Griquas won three of their last four — smashing the Bulls (42–21) and Cheetahs (40–10) away, dismantling the Cheetahs again 25–5 in the semi, and then winning the final 27–25 at Ellis Park with George Whitehead's last-kick penalty. Crucially, they win on the road: three of those four wins came away from Kimberley, including the title decider. This is a side with no fear of travelling.
Head-to-Head Record
0 – 0 – 8
Western Province/Stormers wins · Draws · Griquas wins (Griquas' last 8 in a row)
Stormers (0)This is one of the most lopsided current rivalries in South African domestic rugby: Griquas have won the last eight meetings in a row, stretching back to Western Province's 34–17 win in December 2020. The most recent was a 47–17 rout in Kimberley in the 2025 pool stage, and the one before that a 37–29 win in 2024. Whatever badge is on the Cape jersey, Griquas have owned this fixture for half a decade — and they arrive as the team that went on to lift the trophy.
Recent Results
| Date | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2025 | Currie Cup | Griquas 47–17 W. Province |
| Sep 2024 | Currie Cup | Griquas 37–29 W. Province |
| Jun 2022 | Currie Cup | W. Province 41–43 Griquas |
Average score in the last 6 meetings: Griquas have won eight straight in this fixture. In the last two Currie Cup meetings they won by 30 and by 8 — and the Cape side has not led this rivalry on the scoreboard at full-time since 2020.
Extended Form
Stormers1W, 6L (last 12 months)
The entire body of recent work is the 2025 Currie Cup: a solitary 40–22 win over Boland Cavaliers on the final day, alongside defeats to the Bulls (23–48), Lions (19–40), Griquas (17–47), Cheetahs (24–31), Sharks XV (21–29) and Pumas (13–39). Bottom of the table, −99 points difference. No competitive matches have been played since under the new Stormers XXIII banner.
On paper this is a team in freefall — but the paper is out of date. The 2026 side is a rebrand and a reset: the Stormers XXIII is John Dobson's development vehicle, stocked with URC-system talent and reinforced by experienced signings including URC winner Cornel Smit, Tiaan Fourie and 2014 Currie Cup winner Gerbrand Grobler. The talent floor should be higher than last year's wooden-spoon outfit — but it is a brand-new combination that has never played a competitive minute together.
Griquas7W, 2L (last 12 months)
The 2025 Currie Cup title run: a 5–2 regular season (wins over Boland, Western Province, the Sharks, the Bulls and Cheetahs; losses to the Lions twice), then a 25–5 semi-final demolition of the Cheetahs and a 27–25 final win over the Lions at Ellis Park — Griquas' first Currie Cup crown since 1970, a 55-year wait ended by the final kick of the game.
Champions, and battle-tested ones — George Whitehead's game management and goal-kicking steered them through the tightest moments, and their pack fronted up against the biggest names in the competition. The only question mark is continuity: as a smaller union, Griquas can lose players to URC recalls and richer rivals over the off-season, so how much of the title-winning XV actually runs out in Cape Town matters. But the spine and the winning habit are proven.
Stormers XV
Not yet announced — checked stormers.co.za, the SA Rugby match centre and team-news searches (rugby365, SA Rugby Magazine, kickoff.com) as of 12 July; the historic Stormers XXIII Currie Cup debut XV had not been named this far out. New head coach Tom Dawson-Squibb (ex-UCT), assisted by Dewaldt Duvenage and Pine Pienaar, leads a development-focused group built on the DHL Stormers system and bolstered by experienced signings — URC winner Cornel Smit, Tiaan Fourie and lock Gerbrand Grobler. John Dobson has framed the campaign as a platform for young talent to push for URC and Champions Cup selection.
Griquas XV
Not yet announced — checked SA Rugby's match centre and team-news searches as of 12 July. For reference, the XV that won the 2025 final was: Cameron Hufke; Dylan Maart, Zane Bester, Mnombo Zwelendaba, Gurshwin Wehr; George Whitehead, Caleb Abrahams; Gustav Erlank, Carl Els, Lourens Oosthuizen, Albert Liebenberg, Derik Pretorius, Cebo Dlamini (capt), Janco Uys, Eddie Davids. How many of that group front up in Cape Town depends on off-season retention, but veteran flyhalf Whitehead and the title-winning tight five remain the reference point.
Key Matchups
The decisive edge is cohesion and control. Griquas kept a title-winning spine together and, in George Whitehead, have a veteran 10 who wins tight games with his boot and his head — exactly the profile that punishes a first-week side for every penalty and every wrong option. Gurshwin Wehr and Dylan Maart give them genuine strike out wide. The Stormers XXIII's route back into it is raw individual quality and home advantage: if the pack, marshalled by Grobler and Smit, can win the collisions and give their young halves front-foot ball, the system talent can hurt anyone. But Round 1, with a brand-new combination against the reigning champions, is the worst possible week to be finding your feet.
Match Forecast
This is the rare Round 1 fixture where the scorecard tips just past the tipping point: net −8, the threshold at which an away pick becomes justified. Everything measurable favours Griquas — reigning champions, winners of eight straight in this exact fixture, a 47–17 win the last time they met, and a proven ability to win on the road. Against that sits a side whose most recent competitive rugby was a −99, wooden-spoon campaign. Cohesion is the decider: Griquas kept a title-winning spine and a veteran game-manager in George Whitehead, while the Stormers XXIII run out as a brand-new combination in their very first match together.
But this is genuinely close to a coin flip, and the reason is the one thing the H2H can't price: nobody has seen the Stormers XXIII play. This is not the WP side that finished last — it is a rebranded, better-funded development team drawing on the full DHL Stormers system, with a higher talent ceiling and home advantage at DHL Stadium. If that raw quality clicks early and the pack wins the collisions, the champions could be ambushed in Cape Town. Griquas may also have lost members of their title XV to off-season recalls. Take the champions by a whisker — but this is the kind of game that turns on a single Whitehead penalty.
Griquas to edge it by a score — champions' cohesion and eight straight wins in the fixture just outweigh an unknown, rebranded Stormers side on debut.
Griquas have won the last eight meetings against Western Province/Stormers, a streak stretching back to WP's 34–17 win in December 2020.
The last time these sides met, in the 2025 pool stage in Kimberley, Griquas ran out 30-point winners.
Griquas' 2025 Currie Cup title — a 27–25 final win over the Lions on the last kick at Ellis Park — was their first since 1970, ending a 55-year drought.
Western Province finished last in 2025: one win from seven, a −99 points difference and just six log points.
This is the first Currie Cup match under the Stormers XXIII banner — Western Province has been consolidated into the DHL Stormers brand across all competitions, with Tom Dawson-Squibb as head coach.
Griquas won three of their last four in 2025 away from Kimberley, including the semi-final and the final — they do not fear travelling.