Dobson addresses line-out woes to avoid deja vu against Sharks
INTERVIEW: If there’s one area the Sharks will target the Stormers this weekend, it will be the line-outs after John Dobson’s men had a horror show against Edinburgh in that department a week ago.
The Stormers won only 57 percent of their own line-out ball against Edinburgh, which ultimately contributed to their narrow loss to Sean Everitt’s troops.
Last season in the corresponding fixture against the Sharks, the Stormers had a similar issue at the set-piece, losing six line-outs in the process and were outplayed in the scrum and maul department as well.
*Also read: Stormers load up on Boks for coastal derby against Sharks
Heading into this coastal derby, Dobson revealed his message to the team after the Edinburgh defeat and what he expects from them at the set-piece.
“I feel the level of disappointment, frustration, reaction and desperation [after Edinburgh] – it [the line-outs] will be better,” Dobson said.
“We told the team straight after the game against Edinburgh that it’s exactly how we got beaten [against the Sharks] last season; we lost line-outs, and the Sharks mauled us into submission better than Edinburgh did.
“The line-outs simply have to be better; we will lose this game if we concede six plus throws on our own ball.
“We ended as the second-best line-out team last season besides those two Sharks games we lost; the top two [line-out] contesting teams in the competition are Edinburgh and the Sharks.”
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Dobson further explained how they prepared for a similar scenario should they find themselves under pressure at the line-out against the Sharks.
“We’ve obviously made more original plans, but you could see last week that we just tried to get to the maul; we never played the bailout ball at the front.
“If we are under pressure, we will have to be a bit more pragmatic, whether it’s a throw over the top or a bailout ball at the front or drop the numbers to a four-man line-out, so we’ve got options to win the ball which we weren’t prepared for last week.”
The Stormers Director of Rugby also touched on the influence Springbok Eben Etzebeth might have and pinpointed where things went wrong against Edinburgh and how they’ll try and avoid a repeat of it this weekend.
“I don’t think Vincent [Tshituka] will be playing, who is great at contesting the line-out, and Eben [Etzebeth] is obviously this massive bruiser.
“He’s [Etzebeth] very clever when it comes to the line-out; his ground movement is fast, and he gets up high, so that’s a challenge.”
“Against Edinburgh, we identified three throw-in issues in the 11 line-outs we lost.
“We knew that their No.6 is the best contester and we went six times to him, which is poor, and as Deon [Fourie] said during the week, it’s a systemic error.
“We have to be aware of Eben this week.”
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