With 12 players in the November touring squad — potentially 13 if Mbonambi gets through Ulster unscathed — the Stormers are now the most Bok-heavy franchise in the country. Dobson is candid about the operational headache that creates: his carefully laid plans for the Durban return against the Sharks on 5 December, six days after the Nations Cup final at Twickenham, are already being redrawn. Ahmed, who was being groomed to carry the No 10 load in that game, could now be playing in a Bok final the previous Saturday. Muller and Norton, similarly earmarked for key roles in the December run, won't be in the building during the critical weeks of preparation beforehand. The piece traces how this dynamic has evolved — from the era when the Sharks carried the Bok burden and the Stormers watched warily, to a model where Cape Town is now the destination of choice for emerging talent precisely because Erasmus keeps rewarding it. Porthen is the template: contracted before his Bok breakthrough, accelerated by national exposure, now an established Test prop. Norton, Muller and Ahmed could follow the same arc. Dobson's challenge is managing the gap between that long-term upside and the short-term disruption to franchise planning that comes with being rugby's most productive Bok factory.