Watch VideoNo soft landing for Deon Fourie as Stormers, Bulls prepare for latest ‘car crash’ derby

Deon Fourie, right, and his Stormers teammates have been preparing in 40-degree heat for their URC match against the Bulls In South Africa, there are local derbies and then there is theNorth-South derby between the Bulls and the Stormers. South AfricanUnited Rugby Championshipderbies are normally a big step up in physicality from other matches. It is fierce and not for the faint of heart.

But matches between the Bulls and the Stormers are less of a sporting contest and more of an 80-minute car crash. It is essentially an MMA bout, but without the punching and kicking. Thelast match between the two teamson January 3 in Cape Town was as brutal as they come.

Sitting in the stands, the crowd winced with each hit. You could hear a big tackle clearly, even sitting amongst 50,000 other screaming fans. And you could feel it too.

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The match itself was not much of a spectacle, but a battle of attrition. The pressure and physicality of the occasion got to the players, with both teams making a plethora of mistakes. The Stormers prevailed 13-8 at the end of the night.

However, they were then forced to rest their big players after that taxing encounter and went on to suffer a61-10 defeat at the hands of Harlequinsin a Champions Cup match in London. It was their first defeat of the season. The Stormers headed back to Cape Town to beat Leicester and qualify for the knockout stages of that competition, but they haven’t managed to get a win since then, with successive defeats against the Sharks and a loss to the Lions spoiling their unbeaten URC run.

On Saturday, they have a chance to right the ship when they face the Bulls at Loftus (2:00 pm kick-off) in the latest instalment of the North-South derby. According to the returning Springbok forward Deon Fourie, they will not lack any motivation when they head to Pretoria this weekend. “It’s always special playing against them.

It gets the best out of you — it’s the rivalry, the intensity, the contact,” said Fourie, who is set to play his first game for the Stormers since 10 October, when he suffered a bicep injury against the Scarlets. For Fourie, returning to this environment and such a big match after a two-year injury nightmare is a daunting prospect. At 39, he is well aware that a Bulls-Stormers clash does not offer a gentle return to action. When asked about the mental fortitude required to step back into the line of fire, Fourie was candid about the trepidation that naturally creeps in.

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