Injury crisis forces Stormers to send SOS to veteran hooker Scarra Ntubeni

The Cape Town franchise suffered a slew of injuries in their hard-fought 52-40 win over the Scarlets on Saturday. Hookers Andre-Hugo Venter (elbow), Lukhanyo Vokozela (concussion) and hybrid Deon Fourie (hamstring) all left the field, leading to lesser-seen uncontested scrums.

Ntubeni last played for the Stormers XXIII during the 2026 Currie Cup and hung up his boots after a send-off in Cape Town. But the 35-year-old has had to purchase footwear and report for duty this week, as confirmed by Stormers skills coach Labeeb Levy on Tuesday.

"Yes, we did send Scat an SOS call, he just came to training today," he said ahead of hosting Ulster.

"We also have Vernon Paulo who has been training and played as well [against Connacht and Edinburgh]. There is also the youngster Altus Rabe who has played in the Currie Cup, so they are the three current players who are busy preparing.

"They all came in this morning; we had an off day on Monday so everyone can fully recover. Right now the guys are busy getting their details right regarding the general set-piece plays and the overall structure.

"Those three guys must just step up and play within the system; it's not only about the individual, and the experience factor will be important."

Levy admitted that it's unlikely Ntubeni will be called up to the matchday 23, but he certainly adds experience to the training group.

"Scarra is probably the third choice at the moment in case there's an injury in training during the week or in the captain's run on Friday or even the warm-up before the game," said Levy.

"He's probably a stop-gap or medical joker, to put it that way, but Dobbo [John Dobson] is looking at alternatives based on the fitness of the other hookers and with the suspension of JJ [Kotze], so we just need to get through this one.

"On matchdays, we always have a backup player in certain positions if someone is forced to pull out. Obviously we'll look around at alternative options, but those three are currently training."

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