VIDEO: 'Ring-rusty' Stormers eye hardy Harlequins
REACTION: Stormers coach John Dobson said they are looking forward to welcoming Premiership giants Harlequins to Cape Town this coming Saturday.
Fresh off a 22-all draw with Irish province Leinster in a United Rugby Championship league match in Dublin at the weekend, the Stormers are gearing up for a history first-ever European Cup knock-out match in Cape Town.
The Stormers coach, Dobson, said he had “mixed feelings” about the draw at a rain-swept RDS at the weekend.,
However, they now shift focus to their Round of 16 European Cup clash with English powerhouse Harlequins back on their home turf in Cape Town this coming Saturday.
Leinster was guaranteed the top spot in the URC despite seeing their 15-match winning run in the competition come to an end in a pulsating draw with the Stormers.
Other than a ‘stinger’ to the shoulder by Springbok prop Frans Malherbe, the Stormers came out of the trip to Ireland relatively unscathed.
Dobson lamented the really tough “Galway-like” conditions and said he was disappointed with his team’s execution in the second half.
“I was disappointed, tactically, how we played in the second half,” he told the media, adding: “It was a game of real intensity, with two quality teams going at each other.
“However, the wind was insane and we were trapped in our own half,” he said about his team’s struggles after the break – having managed to build a 12-point (17.5) first-half lead with the wind at their backs.
Dobson said the first goal of the trip to Dublin at the weekend was to get his team “battled-hardened” for the big Euro game against a quality Harlequins outfit.
(Article continues below the Dobson interview …)
“We wanted real linespeed against Leinster and their phase-attack,” the Stormers coach said, adding ‘I thought we were really excellent there.
“We were more competitive at the breakdown than we were the whole season.”
He added that his returning Springboks “exceeded expectations” after two months of no game time – a mixture of enforced pre-World Cup R&R and national squad conditioning.
“They will be 20 or 30 percent better [against Harlequins] next week, I have no doubt.
“It was a really high-level, intense game of rugby,” he said of the hit-out against the Irish province this past weekend.
He admitted that some of the players were a “little bit rusty” and needed the game.
“The first job was to get ready for Harlequins and get battle-hardened,” Dobson said, adding: “We also needed to learn more about these [challenging European] conditions.
“We wanted to pick up a point and we got two points out of the game.
“We are also the first team in nine or 10 months not to get beaten by Leinster.
“[However,] most important was to ensure we are ready for Harlequins next week and I think we will be.”
The Stormers coach said the European last-16 clash with the English Premiership outfit will be a “great spectacle” in Cape Town.
“We have done quite a bit of work on them,” Dobson said about his analysis of Quins.
“We their style of rugby – Danny Care and Marcus Smith, [Springbok] Andre Esterhuizen will get them go-forward and they have real skill with those two halfbacks.
“They also play a great, attractive brand.
“We are going to have to slow some ball down and stop Andre Esterhuizen.
“It is like playing the South African Sharks of a few years ago with a great ball carrier at No.12 giving them momentum.
“They do play superb style and it should be a really good occasion with hopefully 50,000 people in the [Cape Town] stadium.”
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