Moerat: 'We will be good going forward'

REACTION: Following the 16-53 hammering against Harlequins in the Champions Cup at Twickenham Stoop, Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson and captain Salmaan Moerat expressed their disappointment but shed light on the positives from the match.

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Dobson expressed his disappointment in the performance as well as the result and lamented his team’s ill-discipline, but also gave context due to the horror injury list the Cape side currently experience.

“A poor performance by us, we gave away I think two yellow cards last week, three this week, we pride ourselves on defence…so a very disappointing performance,” Dobson said.

He added: “We got ourselves in a hole with a poor URC start and sitting with an injury list I’ve never seen in my coaching career.”

On Champions Cup participation, Dobson expressed his gratitude that the Stormers can play in the global club competition when asked about fielding a ‘second string’ outfit.

“It’s like you’re invited to somebody’s birthday party and you complain about the chips or something.

“We’re so grateful to be here so I desperately want us to start and play our strongest team [in the Champions Cup.]”

On the injury front, things do look slightly better, with the Stormers confirming last week that more players after Moerat will return in due course before the end of the year.

“Nobody really which is a nice change [in terms of injuries], I think Connor Evans looks like a reasonable ankle injury and Louw Nel pulled a hamstring but that’s it.”

The shining light for Dobson was the debutants and fringe players who played their part, despite the lopsided scoreboard.

“I think the new guys like Vernon Matongo was superb, Louw Nel was really good, Johnny [Jonathan] Roche when he came on debut…I thought those guys took their opportunities really well.

“I think Connor [Evans] was good, Sazi [Sandi] was much better, I don’t think those guys played particularly poorly but we were well beaten.”

Dobson also felt that his side might have gotten a few harsh calls in the scrums and despite the loss, the positive is that more squad depth has been created for the future.

“I think the front row really got unlucky with the rub of the green at some of the scrum calls.

“I don’t feel they got on top of us physically, we kept fighting so in terms of squad depth it’s a massively important part of our project that we develop so we don’t have 25 Stormers but have 40 Stormers.

“Salmaan [Moerat] was in the dressing room and and mentioned the importance of having a JC Mars and Johnny [Jonathan] Roche etc having that experience that they had today.”

Springbok utility back Damian Willemse, who is currently recovering from a groin injury he sustained in the act of scoring a try against Glasgow Warriors, was seen in the coaching box and Dobson shed some light on his involvement in the side.

“He’s been here with us the last few weeks, helping us with our opposition preview.

“When guys have long-term injuries it’s a very lonely place and Gaza [Damian Willemse] wants to stay close to the team which we appreciate so we’ll keep using him.”

Captain Salmaan Moerat provided his assessment of the match, and pinpointed where the team got it wrong after a promising start when they went 6-0 up.

Moerat: “I think for the first 30 minutes we really did well, we were in the game.

“I think it was just lapses of concentration and our basic one on one tackling just let them back into the game.

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“We can agree that those two tries [in the first half] came off two soft tackles and we know it’s going to be really hard to chase a game like that.”

“I think that first 30 minutes is really the potential this group have but if we can just put it together for longer periods then we will be good going forward.”