The pair will line up with in the Stormers’ first away fixture of the 2025/26 United Rugby Championship season when they face the Scarlets on Friday night.
Both were excellent in helping the Springboks to the title in the Rugby Championship, but such is the pace of professional rugby these days, there was no time for rest following last Saturday’s 29-27 victory over Argentina in London that clinched the title.
“Ten and 15 were obvious, we didn’t debate too long and hard about that,” Dobson said. “They were in the UK anyway, we were on our way there and they were genuinely keen to play.
“We will pay for it somewhere down the line when we have to give them a bit of a break, but we’ll give them a few URC games just to make sure they can have a nice, long break.”
A third Springbok who played against Argentina, scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, has been given a rest but will link up with the team later on their European tour.
“I think his wife needed him to hang some pictures because they’ve just moved to Cape Town and he hasn’t been home,” Dobson said with a smile. “If you work it out, since he left Montpellier (at the end of last season), he’d been in the Bok camp the whole time.
“He will join us at some point during this tour – whether it’s next week or the week thereafter. I think definitely for Benetton (October 25).”
The Stormers have started with a pair of home wins over Leinster (35-0) and the Ospreys (26-10), with both victories built on forward dominance, which is why Dobson has opted for a 6-2 split between forwards and backs on the bench again.
“We saw in the first two games that our forwards managed to wear the opposition down and to have 14 forwards is useful at that task, because it means you only have two guys playing the full 80 minutes. It just gives you a bit more grunt and power at the end of the game,” he said.
The Stormers were URC champions in 2022 and losing finalists the following year. A South African team has made the final in each of the four years the competition has been played in its current format.
