Kolbe gets candid ahead of URC return: "Every player has a goal and wants to play in various leagues"

The 2026/27 United Rugby Championship is days away from kick-off, and the DHL Stormers are not arriving to make up the numbers. John Dobson's charges have rebuilt, reshuffled, and reloaded with purpose and the Cape Town faithful have every reason to believe this squad is built to lift silverware.

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Stalwarts Salmaan Moerat, Rüben van Heerden, Dan du Plessis, and Suleiman Hartzenberg, the latter joining the Sharks on loan, are notable absentees at DHL Stadium this term.

But for a franchise with the Stormers' depth and ambition, it is a bump in the road rather than a dead end.

Project 2029 gets its star players

The return of Siya Kolisi, Wilco Louw, and Cheslin Kolbe is no accident - it is the beating heart of the Stormers' ambitious Project 2029 initiative. Kolisi rejoined from the Sharks in July, bringing irreplaceable locker-room leadership and Springbok pedigree in buckets.

Louw, a wrecking ball of a tighthead, adds granite to a scrum that was already one of the URC's most feared. And then there is Kolbe - the man who left Cape Town in 2017 as a rising star and returns a world champion, nine years wiser and hungrier than ever.

Paired with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach, Ntuthuko Mchunu, and Damian Willemse, this is a squad built to go all the way.

Kolbe opens up

Speaking on the BrendanNel YouTube channel during Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series against the All Blacks, the 32-year-old Kolbe was candid:

"I'm definitely excited to be back in Cape Town where everything started for me. The decision was simple my wife and kids were in Cape Town while I was in Japan. It was tough being away from them, and I felt the time was right to come home."

"To also look for an opportunity and to get that from the Stormers again – I am just grateful because there’s so many great young players in the squad at the moment."

His journey through Toulouse, Toulon, and Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath is one he treasures but the pull of home never left him.

He was equally candid about why heading abroad was necessary in the first place:

"Every player has a goal and wants to play in various competitions and leagues, and Japan was definitely one of them that I wanted to experience - getting to do so over there was unique and great in its own way. But it was just more tough being away from my wife and kids and missing out on the small moments."

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A scare on the biggest stage

Kolbe's homecoming does carry an asterisk. He fractured his jaw in the third Test against the All Blacks at FNB Stadium, a match the Springboks won 29–24 to take a 2–1 series lead, and faces weeks on the sidelines.

The Stormers' opening URC home fixtures, including the mouth-watering Sharks derby on 10 October, will have to wait.

Related tags

Cheslin Kolbe John Dobson Project 29 Siya Kolisi Stormers URC Wilco Louw