'Massive wake-up call' for Stormers

SUPER RUGBY REACTION: Stormers head coach John Dobson said he was “extremely disappointed” with his team’s performance against the Blues at Newlands on Saturday.

After winning their first four games of the season, the Stormers slumped to a 14-33 defeat to the team from Auckland, who outplayed the hosts for large periods of the game.

The Stormers looked sluggish throughout the game and had no answers for the Blues’ pace and power in open play.

Defence was also a problem for the home side as they missed 37 tackles during the 80 minutes.

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“I thought the Blues were superb,” Dobson told reporters after Saturday’s match.

“They came at us early and we didn’t stay in the fight.

“They deserved the win and they deserved the margin of the win. We are extremely disappointed with that performance.”

Dobson acknowledged that there were a lot of worrying signs ahead of his team’s next match against the Sharks in Durban

“It’s a massive wake-up call. The most disappointing thing for me was something that we pride ourselves on, which is our physicality, and you guys [reporters] have written about our character and I think both were absent today [Saturday].

“We began to look like victims and we just weren’t working hard enough. We were sliding off tackles and giving them yards on attack, so that’s the most disappointing thing.

“It is a great wake-up call for what becomes a massively important game against the Sharks,” Dobson added.

Meanwhile, captain Steven Kitshoff said there was something not right about his team’s warm-up before the game

“It was not a good warm-up at all going into the first 20 minutes and I think the Blues came out hungrier than us.

“It [warm-up] felt a bit lethargic. We made a couple of mistakes. The okes were not really in the zone and it is just something we have to look at,” said Kitshoff.