Tickets for the rescheduled round-one URC clash at Cape Town Stadium between the Stormers and Vodacom Bulls on Saturday afternoon are officially sold out.

The North-South derby was expected to draw a packed house in the shadow of Table Mountain with 45 000 tickets sold by Thursday. It was a similar situation with the Stormers’ final home game of 2024, a dramatic win against the Sharks.

“We sold out for the Sharks game on December 28, and we’ll sell out this week,” Stormers director of rugby John Dobson told TimesLIVE in the buildup to this week’s match. “It’s about 55,000, and that’s great.”

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It will be a ninth meeting between the traditional rivals in the URC, with the Stormers winning the first seven – including the 2021-22 Grand Final – while the Bulls clinched the most recent clash at Loftus in March 2024.

The Herd lead South Africa’s charge in third place on the URC table with a 6-2 record, and the 4-5 Stormers are in 12th spot, but it is the Cape side that currently tops the SA Shield, having won two of three matches against local foes while the Bulls lost to the Sharks and beat the Lions.