Dylan Maart’s rugby journey reads like a counter-attack launched from his own in-goal area, unlikely, fearless and gathering speed with every stride.
The Stormers winger may have arrived in Cape Town on loan from Currie Cup champions Griquas, but he’s already bursting through defensive lines and demanding a permanent place in the conversation.
Maart announced himself with a try on United Rugby Championship (debut) debut against Munster in Limerick, then poured petrol on the hype with a brace against La Rochelle in the Investec Champions Cup.
Now, with his first run-out at DHL Stadium imminent, the Wellington-born flyer says the last few weeks have felt like rugby played downhill
“Making my debut, playing overseas for the first time and obviously the results have been going our way,” Maart told the media on Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s URC derby against the Lions.
“I’m very excited to play my first game at the DHL Stadium in front of the home crowd – exciting times.”
Not long ago, Maart was grinding it out in the domestic game. The jump to the Stormers’ back three has been as sudden as a step inside that leaves defenders clutching air.
“If I think of where I was a year ago to where I am now, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to play here at the Stormers, so I’m very grateful and very excited.”
While Maart is carving his own channel on the wing, his compass points to those who shaped his dream, and one idol whose path mirrors his own late surge.
“For me growing up, it was Bryan Habana,” he said.
“Cheslin [Kolbe] now, as well as one of my friends, Kurt-Lee Arendse. He lives in Paarl, I’m from Wellington so he’s a guy I look up to and can always ask if I need some advice.”
Like Arendse, who only donned the Springbok green and gold later in his career, Maart’s rise has come against the clock. At 29, when many players are already entrenched, he made a last-throw-of-the-dice decision to quit his job as a warehouse worker at a bottling plant and bet everything on rugby.
Your @emirates Fly Better Try of the Round winner:
This stunner from @THESTORMERS' Dylan Maart with a BEAUT of an offload from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 🤩#InvestecChampionsCup #EmiratesFlyBetterTOTR pic.twitter.com/sHF7dH85ht
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) December 17, 2025
The roots of that resilience run deep.
“I played rugby in primary school, but nothing in high school, for various reasons,” Maart revealed.
“Things weren’t good at home. There were many nights when there was no food and we went to sleep hungry.”
At just 13, he worked as a taxi guard*, opening doors, collecting fares and carrying bags to help put food on the table. It was also his ticket to education, riding for free because he worked on the taxi.
Yet the ball never slipped from his grasp. When opportunity finally bounced his way, Maart scooped it up at pace winning promotion and silverware with Boland Cavaliers, becoming a pillar of a Griquas side that ended a 55-year Currie Cup drought, and now finishing clinically in Stormers colours, as shown by his brace in the 42–21 Champions Cup win over La Rochelle in Gqeberha.
The Stormers’ season is humming like a well-drilled backline: two from two in the Champions Cup, eight wins from eight in all competitions in 2025/26, and a strong chance to host a home last-16 play-off.
Ironically, only two of those victories have come at DHL Stadium, a statistic Maart and company can address when they face the Lions in their ninth match of the campaign on Saturday.
For Maart, it’s another chapter in a story built on patience, grit and late acceleration.
The Wellington Wunderkind is proof that some wingers hit top speed only once the race is already underway, and that the road to green and gold doesn’t always start at the same mark.
