The Stormers’ search for Joseph Dweba’s replacement appears to be over.
According to reports, the Stormers have lured Cheetahs hooker Vernon Paulo to Cape Town to bolster their stocks and he should arrive in the Mother City in January.
The Stormers currently have Andre-Hugo Venter and JJ Kotze as their frontline rakes, but with the expectation being that Venter may spend some time with the Springboks, getting in another strong option was important.
Rapport also says Scarlets hooker Marnus van der Merwe is no longer an option because he’s chosen to speak to the Sharks, Munster and Clermont about his future.
Paulo, 24, first caught the eye in the 2023 Varsity Cup where he was part of the victorious NWU Eagles team. He scored 12 tries in that campaign.
Paulo also featured prominently for the Cheetahs in this year’s Currie Cup.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored a brace of tries and bagged 16 points as the Stormers defeated Zebre to remain unbeaten in the Vodacom URC this season.
While it wasn’t a classic, the Cape side rarely looked troubled by Zebre and left Parma with a 31-13 bonus-point win – their second on their three-match tour.
It was a wild and frantic start to the match, with Zebre putting pressure on the Stormers line following a mistake from the kick-off.
The visitors, however, managed to weather the storm, and after five minutes, flanker Paul de Villiers burrowed over the line.
An errant pass from fullback Warrick Gelant was intercepted by winger Mirko Belloni and he crossed the tryline untouched. Giacomo Da Re was on target with the conversion.
With three minutes to go before half time, Feinberg-Mngomezulu collected his own high ball, beat several defenders and crashed over under the crossbar to give the Stormers a 12-7 lead.
The Stormers continued their dominance as the second half got under way, but the Italians did well to repel wave after wave of Stormers attack.
Eventually the resistance crumbled and Feinberg-Mngomezulu dived over for his second try of the night.
