'It's not good for our brand': Dobson says sorry
SPOTLIGHT: Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson wants to make it clear that Western Province’s dismal Currie Cup campaign is on him.
They are sitting at the bottom of the standings with zero wins from six games ahead of their final-round clash against Boland on Saturday.
Labeeb Levy was given the head coach responsibilities for the campaign, and he was assisted by Brok Harris and Dewaldt Duvenage.
Their most recent result was a 13-39 defeat to the Pumas at the Cape Town Stadium last weekend.
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“To our loyal supporters in the blue and white hoops, I just want to apologise for where we are on the log,” said Dobson.
“I don’t want to make excuses. We had a plan to reboot this squad, which we are doing, and we knew we would take a little bit of pain this year.
“Basically, it’s my responsibility and we knew that we would have a tough Currie Cup.”
Levy’s squad was littered with youngsters, which included players from various clubs.
“It’s part of the greater plan to reboot the whole shape of the Stormers team towards a longer-term project,” Dobson explained.
“I don’t know how much we could’ve done differently.
“To the staff, to the players, I take full responsibility. It’s not good for our brand to be where we are now. I didn’t expect that, and I didn’t want that to happen.”
Dobson added: “We’ve got 15 club guys in at the start, and we’ve got some guys from the Sevens. Junior Boks like Riley [Norton] and Oliver Reid, and some of the existing seniors like Louw Nel, Gary Porter and Scarra [Ntubeni] needed game time, so to gel them was a tough ask.
“I know people out there love Western Province. I can’t hunt with the hounds and run with the wolves by saying, ‘The Currie Cup is important’ and then say, ‘This is great for us developmentally, ‘ which it was.
“I just want to take responsibility and say sorry. The plan is sound, but not where we are at the moment.”
Dobson also had praise for Levy for not deviating from the “plan”
“I have to give Labeeb massive credit. He could’ve knocked on our door and asked for JD Schickerling, Ali Vermaak, Johnny Roche, but he didn’t because we had to work back from that [URC opener] against Leinster [on September 26].
“I didn’t expect the pain to be this bad, and for that I apologise, but we stuck to the process.
“We will have these two games [against Boland and a pre-season friendly against the Sharks], with the Sharks game being the main one to get us ready for the Leinster game.
“The Currie Cup is fantastic. It is going to be a romantic Currie Cup this year.
“It’s going to be a fantastic story for one of those teams.”
Dobson is set to release a few more URC players to WP for Saturday’s match against Boland.
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