Pre-season is a very important part of any team’s build-up to a new season. And we, at Sealand, love helping our DHL Stormers team with their pre-season preparations.
A pre-season campaign is literally about blood, sweat and tears, as the coaches – okay, mainly, the strength and conditioning team – get one final chance to whip their squad into shape.
But, it’s also about having some fun and that is where we, as Sealand, were able to lend a hand ahead of the 2024/25 season.
Last season we took the Stormers on a hike in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve. The season before we, together, with the NSRI, organised an adrenaline-spiking sea challenge. This season, we helped put together an Amazing Race in the beautiful Wildnerness area.
The team arrived in the Wilderness on Monday evening (September 9), having done one final training session at the HPC in Bellville, the same day they received their new Sealand luggage bags for the upcoming season.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on the training field once again, as John Dobson and his coaches put their players through their paces – concentrating on plenty of detail and tactical applications of their game model. Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett also made an appearance as a special guest and helped drive the team hard on the training ground! Some of the players enjoyed a round of golf at Fancourt on the Wednesday afternoon, before the entire squad got to put their feet up on the Thursday ahead of Friday’s fun event.
The Sealanders, meanwhile, arrived in the Wilderness on Thursday night – a team of five, made up of staff members Howie Kahn, Dean Scott, Ulfah Davids, Lauren Montile and Lara van der Merwe – as Friday’s Amazing Race drew closer.
The players had one final training session on Friday morning, before reporting for duty near the Wildnerness National Park for the briefing of what lay ahead… in the most beautiful of settings; another fantastic opportunity for them to Discover New Paths with Sealand!
Led by Bianca le Roux and the Coastline Group, the Amazing Race would take the DHL Stormers squad – divided up into three groups – on the following adventure:
- A 20-30 minute row up the Touw River, where they would collect seven puzzle pieces
- A 3km run along the boardwalk towards the waterfall to complete the puzzle
- A 3km run back to the river and their boats
- A 20-30 minute row back down the river to claim the overall spoils!
As a bonus, Sealand prizes were stashed along the route – mainly to distract the players from the task at hand – but it didn’t seem to worry Adre Smith and Ruhan Nel too much as they collected most of the spoils along the way.
In the end, Hendre Stassen’s team got to the finish line first in a closely-contested but extremely fun event – dirty tricks and, of course, many laughs aside.
But the day was not done yet; first up was an early dinner and a side-splittingly funny awards ceremony at Salinas Beach Restaurant, before the team headed to the Fairy Knowe Backpackers for a party which saw a surprise appearance from legendary musician, Ard Matthews.
All in all, it was job done for Team Sealand and the DHL Stormers who now turn their attention to the upcoming 2024/25 URC season.
“The players love partnering with Sealand and Friday was a fitting way for us and Sealand to kick off our new season,” said DHL Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson.
“Our pre-season emphasis is always on fun, in amongst the final bit of important rugby detail of course, but we are most grateful to Sealand for helping put together a fun final day of adventure on our pre-season camp.”
First up for the DHL Stormers is a friendly in Nelspruit on Wednesday, September 18, before the team heads to Wales, Italy and Scotland towards the end of this month for URC league matches against the Ospreys, Zebre and Edinburgh, respectively.
We look forward to the team’s first home game at the DHL Stadium on October 19, with the Stormers’ latest pre-season adventure still fresh in our minds.
CHECK OUT the video of the DHL Stormers’ Sealand inspired Amazing Race!
