We Stand Together at DHL Newlands
There were a number of special guests at DHL Newlands on Friday to watch the DHL Stormers take on the Blues, from brave firefighters to famous actors, local farmworkers and the Southern Stings netball team.
The DHL Stormers got back to winning ways with a hard-fought 30-22 victory against the visitors from Auckland and they had the benefit of some special groups of supporters in the crowd.
The rallying call for the DHL Stormers is ‘We Stand Together’ and the team certainly felt the advantage of their supporters standing together with them at DHL Newlands on Friday night as they were forced to dig deep to come up with the win.
The Railway Stand saw a group of highly specialised wildland firefighters that provide a rapid response to fires throughout the Western Cape on behalf of the Western Cape Government get right behind the DHL Stormers.
These are the initial attack teams that are called on first when a wildfire breaks out. Often deployed by helicopters to the most inaccessible places where most other firefighting resources cannot get to. They will spend up to 36 hours on the line directly combating the fire.
Given the drought the Western Cape is currently experiencing these firefighters have been hard at work keeping the Peninsular safe so it was a privilege to have them at DHL Newlands to enjoy some Vodacom Super Rugby action.
Not far from the firefighters on the Railway Stand were the Southern Stings netball team who got right behind the DHL Stormers and no doubt ppreciated some of the silky handling skills on display.
The Stings were not the only local sporting team that enjoyed the game as there were also a number of Cape Cobras cricket players who made the trip down Boundary Road from PPC Newlands to take their place amongst the DHL Newlands Faithful.
On top of the sporting stars there were also a group of farmworkers from the De Doorns area who celebrated the end of harvest season with a trip out to DHL Newlands.
Scottish film star Sam Heughan is becoming something of a regular at DHL Newlands this season, but this time he was joined by some of the fellow cast and crew from the hit BBC series Outlander, with a special appearance from DHL Stormer and Scotland international Huw Jones in their box.
Having the support of so many diverse groups standing together with the team at DHL Newlands contributed to a truly memorable evening, with the DHL Stormers delivering a great performance on the field to cap it off.
