How Stormers went from 'flat' to 'fizzing'
REACTION: The ability to retain their composure, despite being down to 13 men, allowed the Stormers to blow English Premiership outfit Bristol Bears away at the weekend.
The Stormers were forced into a late change ahead of their 49-12 win over the Bears in their Champions Cup opener in Cape Town this past Saturday.
Captain and centre Ruhan Nel was ruled out through injury, resulting in Wandisile Simelane starting at No.13. Paul de Villiers took over the captaincy.
The Stormers, despite the setback, ran in seven tries in an impressive rout of the English Premiership outfit.
The Stormers were reduced to 14 in the 33rd minute, when hooker JJ Kotze was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle.
A Cobus Reinach intercept try was rubbed out for a high tackle by Leolin Zas, who was shown a yellow card in the 47th minute.
Bristol made life difficult for the home side during that period, but the Stormers just had too much class in the final quarter.
Dobson also admitted his team started “a little bit flat”, leading just 21-12 after 50 minutes.
The Director of Rugby admitted the squad lacked a bit of energy early in the opening half.
“We felt we were flat in the first half, energy-wise,” he told @rugby365com, adding: “We felt it [the scoring] would just come.
“The scrum was clearly dominant early on, and we felt it would happen naturally.”
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When Kotzé received his 20-minute red card, and Zas was sent to the sin-bin, the Stormers went into ‘game management’.
Dobson said that spending 25 to 26 minutes strictly focused on game management “took a lot of fun out of the game”, because they couldn’t apply pressure through their preferred scrum or maul tactics.
“That game management took us exactly where we did not want to go,” he told @JanDKrugby.
“We couldn’t tire them out through pressure of the scrums and mauls.
“[However], I didn’t feel we were overly under pressure.”
He credited stand-in captain Paul de Villiers and the leadership group for steering the team through it.
“We eventually got it going in the second half,” he said of four unanswered tries in the last 30 minutes, after Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, who was sacrificed when the Stormers were forced to bring on a hooker to cover for the red-carded Kotze, returned.
Jonathan Roche, Warrick Gelant, Andre -Hugo Venter and Leolin Zas crossed the line.
Sacha Feinberg -Mngomezulu, who seems to be running into a rich vein of form, kicked seven conversions, several from the touchlines in an impressive outing by the flyhalf.
Dobson highly commended the young flyhalf’s “magic kicking performance,” as he slotted all his conversion attempts for a 14-point haul, missing a midfield penalty attempt.
“That [goal-kicking] has been one of the question marks of his season,” the coach said, adding: “It is good for Sacha’s confidence and makes a big difference on the scoreboard.”
@JanDKrugby
