Loftus holds no fear for Province
Both teams have started the Currie Cup with consecutive victories, with the Bulls topping the standings thanks to their bonus point earned against the Griquas on Friday while Province had to grind out a tryless win over the Cheetahs at a wet Newlands.
However, Dobson is feeling fairly confident ahead of the trip up north and pointed out that all of his players have won in Pretoria.
"We asked them, everybody in that changeroom has won at Loftus, so we know it is probably a season-defining one but we are up for it," he said.
Dobson took heart from the fact the the Griquas managed to push the Bulls on their home turf, and said that his team will try and exploit the fact that the Bulls are trying to play a more expansive game.
"Even though Griquas lost it a bit at the end we took heart from the fact that Griquas were so competitive against them.
"A lot of teams talk about trying to change their game but if you try and do that overnight it requires a different skillset to play that game so we think we have got a bit of an opportunity there," he said.
However, one area that will have to improve if they are to beat the Bulls is their mauling which Dobson was particularly unhappy about after their narrow victory against the Cheetahs.
"We have beaten the Bulls, we have mauled the Bulls at Loftus, so maybe this is the wake up we need without having the pain of the loss.
"Sometimes an exercise like this is really good because we have talked about mauling but I think subliminally we think 'OK it is the Cheetahs', but these guys know if they go to Loftus with that attitude they are really going to come a cropper," he said.
The Province coach lamented the fact that despite dominating for most of the game against the Cheetahs, his side were forced to hang on for victory in the end and admitted that they tried to play too much rugby in what were very difficult conditions.
"I thought we dominated the game, but from the point of view of the amount of ball we turned over we played too much rugby.
"Territorially we were at 70-odd, possession-wise we were at 70-odd, but just kept losing the ball.
"Other than those last two or three minutes that almost caused heart failure we had total dominance.
"We knew when we ran on that we were not going to score four tries, and we didn't score any.
"It was a bit disappointing because at Newlands we really want to build on the way we want to play the game," he said.
He was not happy with the breakdowns, which he felt slowed the game down even more and restricted attacking opportunities.
"I thought the breakdowns were a complete and utter mess. How much is conditions, how much is opposition tactics and how much is interpretation I don't know but it is very hard to play rugby with breakdowns like that.
"If you are an underdog team these conditions are Christmas for you, you could see it at the breakdown it had all the recipes of an upset, so to get the win is good," he said.
Captain Juan de Jongh went for scans on his injured knee after the game, but Dobson admitted that it had not looked good.
