Ulster have landed in South Africa, ahead of their upcoming United Rugby Championship fixtures against the Sharks and Lions. Durban is the first stop for the Belfast side, with former South African Sevens star Werner Kok back upon his homeland, for the upcoming clash at Kings Park Stadium.

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Kok enjoyed a decorated seven year career with the Blitzboks, before making the conversion to 15s back in 2020. Known as ‘Tarzan’ around Ulster for his long flowing locks, Kok has an Olympic bronze medal in his personal trophy cabinet from Rio 2016, along with an assortment of Commonwealth Games and Rugby Sevens World Cup silverware.

The flying outside back began his 15s journey with the Sharks a half decade ago, before making the move up to Northern Ireland ahead of the 2024/25 URC season. Speaking upon an Ulster press conference from Durban, Kok revealed how he is enjoying this trip down memory lane. However, the wing revealed how he expects some stick from both the Sharks fans and his old teammates for 80 minute fray.

“It’s nice coming back. I’m going to love playing against them. It is always a good challenge, and I know what they’re going to bring and the players that I would have obviously trained with and played for years. But I’m really excited to be able to play at the Shark Tank again and against some old mates, rivals now.

“Yes, I said about they [Sharks] were my family, the guys here will always be good friends, good brothers, good family, but Ulster is my family at the moment. Whenever we step onto that pitch between those four lines, it’s the guys around me in the white jerseys [my family] and we’re going to push to win it.”

“It will be nice seeing them [Sharks] again. They’ve always been really good to me, but I will expect a bit of abuse from the sides, and I think on the pitch will be the same thing! The Sharks will talk quite a bit, and they get energy out of it. But when we finish the game, it will be fine, it will be nice to see old faces again in the changing room, and then off the pitch as well. But on the pitch, I’m going to be an enemy!”

Kok is delighted to be back in South Africa, with the Ulster wing appointed the role as resident tour guide for Ritchie Murphy’s squad.

“I’ll be the tour guide for the week. So there is golf organised, there’s a bit of braai set up for everyone, and one or two other things. I think some of the boys wants to get to the shooting range and see if they can hit a few clay pigeons. I loved being here. I did a lot of lot of things in the outdoors. I would kayak pretty much every week, fishing, out in the bush and stuff like that.”

Ulster arrive in South Africa riding a wave of momentum, having won their first two outings in the 2025/26 URC season. The Belfast side commenced their campaign with a solid dismantling of the Dragons, before the adverse weather of Storm Amy cancelled their second round clash with Edinburgh. Ulster maintained their focus for a memorable win over last year’s URC finalists the Bulls. This triumph over South African opposition had buoyed the side with confidence ahead of the upcoming series in the land of the Springboks.

“I think going away from home is where a team really gets tested.” Kok said. “For us, coming to the Sharks, playing against a team that will probably be loaded with Springboks, coming off a good international window will be a great test. I think the confidence we have after playing the Bulls, that is for me, honestly, the top team in South Africa, and being able to beat them at home, gives us a lot of confidence going to this weekend and knowing that we can do it.”

Ulster recorded a memorable victory at Kings Park Stadium back in February 2023, albeit the win was not without it’s controversy. The fixture was initially scheduled for October 2022, yet a stomach illness broke out across the Ulster camp from within their Durban team hotel, forcing the match to be postponed. Rassie Erasmus was among those that voiced their frustration with the cancellation, as the Sharks were set to field a full-strength side that would have likely made quick work of their visitors.

Once the match was eventually rescheduled, the Sharks had to field a weakened side to face Ulster, as February is considered a resting month for the top Springboks players. As a result, Ulster bagged a solid 31-24 victory, which had long-term implications for the Durban side.

The Sharks missed out on a spot in the following Champions Cup season as a result, with an atmosphere of ‘owing them one’ swirling around the Kings Park Stadium. Kok played for the Sharks in that February 2023 fixture, and the now Ulster wing provided some insider knowledge on how the Durban club are feeling ahead of Saturday’s kick off.

“That was a bit of a tough one. It was the year when they actually postponed the game and then they came back and actually beat us. I think for us [Ulster], going into this, knowing that we’ve been successful here, it doesn’t matter what they [Sharks] say. They think they ‘owe us one’, or this and that, the end of the day, it comes to the job, then we’ve got ‘one on them’. I think coming here, it’s always nice to know you have that confidence and you know you can beat them here.”

Turning his attention back to the game at hand, Kok gave an insight into how different this clash with South African opposition will be, compared to Ulster’s home win over the Bulls from last weekend. With the elemental factors of increased heat and humidity, coupled with the partisan atmosphere of the Kings Park Stadium ‘Shark Tank’, Kok revealed how a dust-up in Durban feels a world away from a Belfast battle. However, Kok knows that if Ulster hit their stride, the Kings Park crowd could well fall silent.

“So the big thing is, the weather is going to be humid. You’re going to sweat a lot, the ball is going to be very slippery. So, if we can work around that, everything will be fine. Then in the stadium, there’s always a big vibe. They [Sharks fans] make a lot of noise, they sing songs, there’s even fireworks going off. They are going to give you a bit of a chirp or banter from the touch line and even in the game.

“But if you soak it all up and use it to your advantage, they get silenced very quickly. If you put two, three tries on top of them, then the whole crowd goes silent. They go silent, so just beat them with what you can do, that’s pretty much all you can do.”

Werner Kok: South African wing reveals why Sharks ‘owe Ulster one’ following controversial 2023 match

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