SA-born flyhalf Tinus de Beer is arming Cardiff for the Stormers’ ‘chaotic’ brand of rugby when the teams lock horns in Wales on Friday night.
The Stormers face Cardiff in round 6 of the Vodacom URC at Arms Park. The Welsh outfit are on a three-match winless run that includes defeat at home to the Vodacom Bulls but they’ve shared the spoils in two matches against the Stormers, who are desperate to cap off a disappointing four-week tour with a win.
Coming up through the Bulls system, De Beer represented South Africa at Schools and U20s level, going on to have spells with Griquas and Pumas, winning the Currie Cup with the men from Nelspruit in 2022.
Now, the 27-year-old playmaker is looking to make his mark in Wales and quoted on Cardiff’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, De Beer explained the difference in styles between the Bulls and Stormers, while touching on the inclusion of SA teams in European competition and rugby culture in the Republic.
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“I think personnel wise, [they’re] more or less the same. You know, the big forwards, and then you got the fast and elusive backs,” he said.
“Playing wise as a team, I think the Bulls are more structured, where the Stormers rely quite a lot on chaos in their game and they create a lot of that and are good at it.
“They score tries off the bounce and I think their game is all about the transition. They’ve got some backs who can really spark that up and when it’s time to get down and dirty, the forwards can provide that as well, so it’s a good mixture of that.”
De Beer added: “Seeing South African teams doing so well, the Stormers winning it one year and then going on to the final the next year, I just think rugby is so rich in South Africa.
“Everyone just gets behind wherever, if it’s this or that, rugby is just uniting the whole country at this stage. Obviously winning the World Cup as well just brings more flavour into it as well.
“So I think everybody just stands behind their home team and home-based team and they just want to see some winning rugby for the SA teams.”
Tinus De Beer Interview 🗣️
Fly-half Tinus De Beer looks ahead to this Friday’s game against @THESTORMERS
Get your tickets here – https://t.co/xuGXpaKos5#AlwaysCardiff pic.twitter.com/HkfOSklUzf
— Cardiff Rugby (@Cardiff_Rugby) November 23, 2023
Photo: Andrew Dowling/INPHO/Shutterstock