Hartzenberg’s milestone tells a story beyond his outrageous talent

Suleiman Hartzenberg will play his landmark 50th game when the DHL Stormers tackle Cardiff in their final Vodacom United Rugby Championship league game on Friday night, and yet he’s only 21 years old.

That the game at DHL Stadium will be his 50th and he only turns 22 next week vindicates the feeling that although so young he has been around for a while. The decorated Springbok Damian Willemse played his 100th game for the Stormers against the Dragons last week and like Hartzenberg he also made his debut at the age of just 18 a year out of school.

But when Willemse did what Hartzenberg is doing now by reaching his half century, it was 2022 and he was 24 years old. The story that tells, is of the much busier schedule faced by the franchises since South Africa linked into the northern hemisphere competitions, the URC and Investec Champions Cup.

Of course, the season that Willemse earned his 50th cap was the one where they won the inaugural URC title. Before that the Stormers were only playing Super Rugby, which meant a maximum of 16 games a season. Now they play 18 games just in the URC, and 21 if, like in 2022 and 2023, they reach the final.

In addition to that, there are a minimum of four Pool games in the Champions Cup, but in 2023 they played six Champions Cup games because they made it to the quarterfinal round. So if you isolate 2023, that was 21 URC games plus six Champions Cup games, bringing the total games played by the Stormers that season to 27. That's 11 more than they played in the URC era.

DEBUT IN SEASON DAMIAN PLAYED 50th

Hartzenberg made his debut in the season that Willemse played his 50th game and played five games in that URC-winning season, just a year after he was the star turn for his school, Bishops, which was where he first gave notice that he could become the global star that his current Stormers coach John Dobson believes he will become.

Given his pace down the wing and his ability to play centre, which is where his future at the Stormers probably is, it is surprising that Hartzenberg has yet to be included in an official Springbok squad. At least until you look at his age. He’s already played 50 games for the Stormers, but he has a long future ahead of him.

Dobson said Hartzenberg was unlucky to be benched for the last two games against Benetton and Dragons, but he did feature in both as a creative presence. In his last start against Connacht three matches ago, he was the player who took fellow Bishops product Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s long backflip pass to score an important try and he scored the last Stormers try in the 48-12 win over the Dragons after coming on for a cameo as a replacement.

His skill is becoming more and more evident, such as when he popped up in one of the inside channels against Connacht to create one of Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s three tries, and he did something similar when he was on as a blood bin replacement in the 56-5 rout of Benetton.

He will feature as a starter on Friday as the Stormers’ policy is to start a player playing a milestone game if it is possible and Dobson did pre-empt it at last week’s post-match press conference. With Wandisile Simelane deserving of another run in the No13 jersey ahead of the playoffs, it may well be on the wing again, but Hartzenberg says he won’t complain about that.

“It is ultimately about making myself more versatile as a player, and being able to adapt to both centre and wing,” said Hartzenberg, who added that versatility will improve his chances of Bok selection.

That appeared to come closer with his selection for the recent alignment camps and it is understood that he does figure in national coach Rassie Erasmus’ plans for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, where he will be 24-years-old and heading into his pomp as a player.

“Those alignment camps give you an understanding how the Springboks work in their system, which is different from what I am used to, and you want more from it. They give you enough to want more and to pursue that dream of becoming a Springbok one day.”

A QUESTION OF WHEN RATHER THAN IF

The Boks are well blessed at centre and on the wing currently but Hartzenberg’s elevation to international status has always been a question of when rather than if. And playing with star players like Willemse, Manie Libbok (who should be back in the Stormers team for the Cardiff game) and other experienced players like Warrick Gelant and Dan du Plessis will further help his development, as will dovetailing with his old schoolmate Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

“Being assisted by the players around me has helped me a lot since my debut. There hasn’t been one negative moment where no one was willing to help,” he says.

The Stormers no longer need to win to ensure a finish in the playoff placings and dropping down the log a bit could secure them a quarterfinal in South Africa rather than a repeat of last year’s game at the Scotstoun, where they were defeated by the Glasgow Warriors, but Hartzenberg confirmed that there has been no relaxing of the pressure to perform.

“Cardiff is 100 per cent an attacking threat and we will not get comfortable as there is still a lot to play for,” said Hartzenberg of his team’s final home engagement of the 2024/2025 URC campaign.

The Stormers team for the Cardiff game will be announced later on Thursday.