That's it for our coverage of this epic encounter. The Stormers snatched a dramatic late win courtesy of a try by Jean-Luc du Plessis to end the year on a winning note.
FULL-TIME, STORMERS 24-20 SHARKS. The Sharks contest the restart, but lose it forward in contact and from the resultant scrum, Libbok hoofs the ball into touch.
CONVERSION, STORMERS, LIBBOK. 24-20. The Stormers have a four-point lead.
TRY, STORMERS, DU PLESSIS. 22-20. A barnstorming driving maul from close to the 22m line sinks the Sharks.
Injury change for the Stormers as Frans Malherbe goes back on in place of a dazed Fouche.
With the game on a knife's edge, the Sharks concede a silly penalty and the Stormers find touch inside the 22.
PENALTY, SHARKS, HENDRIKSE. 17-20. The visitors have the lead with under 10 minutes to go.
Hendrikse lines up a kick at goal after the Sharks won a breakdown penalty.
We're in for a grandstand finish in the Mother City, with these coastal sides going blow for blow.
CONVERSION, SHARKS, JORDAN HENDRIKSE. And we're all square again at DHL Stadium.
TRY, SHARKS, JORDAN HENDRIKSE. 17-15. Not to be outdone by his counterpart, Hendrikse crosses to score.
A terrible mistake at the lineout by the Stormers jumpers affords the Sharks another opportunity.
With the Stormers in the driving seat now, the Sharks will have to pull out the stops to get something out of this game.
CONVERSION, STORMERS, LIBBOK. 17-10. And he adds the extra two points on offer.
TRY, STORMERS, LIBBOK. 15-10. The playmaker takes it upon himself to shred the Sharks defence and score a magical try.
The Stormers are caught offside just as they attempt to exert pressure on the Sharks' exit kick.
Both these sides have created opportunities to break the deadlock, they've just not been clinical enough.
The Stormers have the upper hand in scrum and they win a penalty against the feed at the set-piece.
Siya Kolisi and Deon Fourie both leave the field with a standing ovation from the crowd.
The Sharks are doing a good job of pinning the Stormers in their own half of the field.
Juries slices through the Stormers defence, but with one man to beat, he makes the wrong decision by passing the ball to Ethan Hooker on the outside instead of Hendrikse on his inside. Hooker is bundled into touch.
The Stormers put the ball out of the full, giving the Sharks another chance to launch an attack.
And that could well be viewed as another missed chance, as they concede possession via an unforced error. Scrum to the Stormers.
Not to be outdone by their hosts, the Sharks now set an attacking lineout after winning a penalty from the restart.
Despite the vocal support of the crowd chanting his name, Libbok misses the conversion.
TRY, STORMERS, DEON FOURIE. 10-10. Finally, the dam wall breaks and the crowd goes wild.
The Stormers are on the hunt now. They set another attacking lineout.
The 50/50 calls are just not going the Stormers' way at the moment.
The score remains 5-10 in the Sharks' favour.
HUGE CALL. The officials have just disallowed the Stormers' try as a result of Du Plessis' reckless hit on Esterhuizen.
Oh, they are now looking at the incident in which Esterhuizen was injured. Du Plessis was the culprit.
Springbok Andre Esterhuizen looks to be in a spot of bother. He has sustained a leg injury and is now being carted off the field.
CONVERSION, STORMERS, LIBBOK. 12-10. The flyhalf finally converts one of his attempts off the tee.
TRY, STORMERS, DE WET. 10-10. Superb from the Stormers. Sequence of brilliant interplay between backs and forwards finally sees the hosts breach the Sharks' line.
The Stormers are their own worst enemies at times. Now De Wet passes the ball to no one in particular and it goes out into touch.
Du Plessis breaks the line, but Pence intervenes with a slap down. Luckily for him, the ball goes backwards.
KICK-OFF. The second half is underway.
HALF-TIME, STORMERS 5-10 SHARKS. The Stormers turned down multiple kickable penalties, but failed to score from the three lineouts.
The Stormers thought they had scored through Fourie, but he was in touch. But they have another penalty and Ethan Hooker is yellow carded.
The Stormers secure possession at the set-piece and spread it wide with a two on one overlap, but Fassi does well to stop Gelant in his tracks.
With half-time approaching, the Stormers turn down another kickable penalty in favour of an attacking lineout.
Big loss for the Stormers as Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is forced off with an injury. Jean-Luc du Plessis has replaced him.
The Stormers brilliantly contest the restart, but they knock the ball on. Relief for the Sharks.
CONVERSION, SHARKS, JORDAN HENDRIKSE. 5-10. The playmaker adds the extras to extend his team's lead.
TRY, SHARKS, PENXE. 5-8. The visitors use the width of the field and work the ball wide off the back of a scrum and the winger scores.
That's it for Jantjies, who is helped off the field. He won't be returning to action. Paul de Wet has come on as his replacement.
Jantjies is down and out after he was bounced off by Ethan Hooker down the left-hand touchline.
Fassi just about wins a footrace against Jantjies to save the Sharks from conceding a try.
And it's miss again. Both kickers have been poor off the tee.
Now Jordan Hendrikse lines up a long range penalty kick from inside his own half.
Or not. The Sharks' try is chalked off as there was a forward pass in the build-up.
TRY, SHARKS, JADEN HENDRIKSE. 5-8. The visitors finish off a brilliant team effort.
Chance missed. Opportunity wasted as the Sharks steal the lineout.
It's all been a bit stop-start in the last couple of minutes. But now the Stormers have an attacking lineout about 10m from the tryline.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu dances around the Sharks defence, but then his offload doesn't go to hand. Lineout for the Sharks.
There are quite a few handling errors in this game, which is frustrating because the weather conditions are perfect.
The Sharks attack the Stormers' line at will, but to no avail as Juries is bundled into touch.
The kick, from dead in front, sails just wide.
Libbok lines up a penalty kick after the Sharks were pinged at the scrum.
Unfortunately, Manie Libbok is off target with his conversion attempt.
TRY, STORMERS, SENATLA. 5-3. The hosts hit back through the speedster, who collected the ball after a grubber kick through the Sharks defence.
This is a delicious little mini-battle between Deon Fourie and Siya Kolisi. The latter has just conceded a penalty after the former ran at him.
The Stormers manage to put together a few phases and Deon Fourie breaks the line, but the ball is lost in contact.
PENALTY, SHARKS, HENDRIKSE. 0-3.
Playing under an advantage, they opt for a kick-pass. But the referee calls them back for a penalty. Lineout Sharks.
The Sharks have an attacking scrum 5m out from the tryline.
Early trouble for the Stormers as the Sharks find touch on the 5m. The Stormers secure the ball at the lineout, but they are caught in possession in the in-goal area.
KICK-OFF! We're underway with the first half here in the Mother City… It's the Stormers against the Sharks!
Referee: Aimee Barret-Theron (South Africa).
Assistant Referees: AJ Jacobs (South Africa) and Stephan Geldenhuys (South Africa).
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa).
Sharks: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Jurenzo Julius, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Siya Kolisi (captain), 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 6 Phepsi Buthelezi, 5 Emile van Heerden, 4 Jason Jenkins, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Dylan Richardson, 1 Ox Nche. Replacements: 16 Bryce Calvert, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Hanro Jacobs, 19 Corne Rahl, 20 Nicholas Hatton, 21 Bradley Davids, 22 Siya Masuku, 23 Francois Venter.
Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Suleiman Hartzenberg, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 11 Seabelo Senatla, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Marcel Theunissen, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 JD Schickerling, 4 Salmaan Moerat, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Andre-Hugo Venter, 1 Ali Vermaak. Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Neethling Fouché, 19 Ruben van Heerden, 20 Willie Engelbrecht, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Jean-Luc du Plessis.
The Sharks' only previous win at DHL Stadium was a 33-30 victory in the Rainbow Cup in May 2021.
The Sharks' 21-15 win over Stormers in Durban last month ended a seven-game winless run against the team from the Cape.
The Sharks have won both matches they have played against South African opponents this season.
Sharks only away win in the URC this campaign was at Dragons RFC in Round 3.
Sharks’ only defeat in their last six first team matches was at Leicester in the EPCR Champions Cup on 14 December.
Stormers have won their last eleven games in Cape Town against fellow South African franchises.
Stormers have lost only one of their last five URC home matches, 17-28, to Glasgow in Stellenbosch in Round 6.
The Stormers’ three wins in the United Rugby Championship this season were against Zebre (a), Munster (h) and the Lions (h) last weekend.
Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of the URC showdown between the Stormers and the Sharks, brought to you live from DHL Stadium in Cape Town.
Stormers v Sharks, URC, 17:00
