Dobson lambastes 'atrocious' defence

.The Lions ran in eight tries in a clinical display of running rugby, a style Dobson referred to as "magical."

"We were atrocious defensively and you simply cannot give away a few 90-metre tries in a game. Our defence was too tight, we slipped too many tackles and never worked hard enough. When Andries [Coetzee] got the first break from the kick-off, I knew they were going to run the ball with everything they had and we weren't up to defending it.

"We know the Lions play a fast game and we has some plans for it but we never executed it and were well beaten. We have to give credit to them [Lions] though because they played a magical style of rugby.

"They exploited our defensive frailties really well. When the game was won, the Lions continued to defend really well. There is a lot of character and pride in the Lions and they will be at the sharp end of this competition, there's no doubt," Dobson said.

Dobson was left resigned to the fact that their title hopes are all-but-over.

"It is going to be tough now because we need a couple of results to go our way and we need to get 15 points from the remaining games.

"We are a better team than this and I have to give credit to my team as well for doing everything they could to secure the four-try bonus point," he added.