AUDIO: Dobbo's master plan worked to perfection
REACTION: Stormers Director of Rugby revealed that one of his team’s pre-planned tactics paid off in their heroic 27-21 comeback victory over Munster in Round Six of the United Rugby Championship.
By the end of the first half, the Stormers found themselves 15 points behind after Munster dominated the opening stanza, leading by 21-6 at the break.
Despite Munster’s dominance, the Stormers didn’t do themselves any favours through poor discipline, which saw Connor Evans and Marcel Theunissen yellow-carded in the first half, effectively playing with 14 players for 20 minutes.
Dobson admitted that the poor discipline and execution made life tough for his team.
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“Munster were absolutely superb in that first half, where everything went wrong for us.
“They put us under pressure and physically stood up to us, which caused us some issues.
“They cleaned us off the double [hits], put our defence under pressure where we conceded three tries in a half, which obviously is a credit to them.
“But it was our worst defensive performance thus far in the tournament against a good team that put their [Irish] internationals in without rest going into this game.
“Our discipline was poor in the first half, conceding penalties [and yellow cards], be it for pulling a jersey or being the third player in [at the breakdown].
In the 45th minute, Dobson took a page from Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus’ playbook, sending all his replacement forwards onto the pitch.
The move proved to be a masterstroke, as the Capetonians started to gain ascendancy in the collisions, improved their line-out and gained fluidity on attack.
Dobson said that sending all the replacement forwards on at once was part of the plan for when they found themselves in the scenario of being 15 points down.
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“We always had the plan with the six [replacement] forwards coming on at the same time,” Dobson said.
“We trained at the captain’s practice on how the calls and all the other details would work with all six replacements coming on.
“It was done as a pre-planned tactic, and we actually said if we found ourselves 15 points behind, knowing that Munster would come out smoking, that we would have a chance.
“A lot of the feeling was that we might as well roll the dice because we were in so much trouble.
“They made a huge difference. It must be tough for the starters because they must think that they were poor.
“But we knew Munster would put us under pressure. Our scrum was magic without some really good players.
“That [scrum] culture is breeding itself nicely across South African rugby.”
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