Dobson hails Stormers' defence after 'tough week' 

REACTION: Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson praised his side’s defensive efforts as they broke their Munster hoodoo in the United Rugby Championship with a 34-19 victory at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.

The Stormers entered Round Five of the URC dead last on the competition table following a disappointing tour to Europe where they recorded a solitary win against Zebre in between losses to Ospreys and Edinburgh respectively.

Dobson hailed his side’s defensive efforts as they kept the visitors to three tries in the match and leaving them empty handed at the end of 80 minutes.

“I think either team weren’t brilliant tonight, I think Munster are a good team, a much tougher team than we sort of realised but I think we were competitive tonight,” said Dobson.

“We were 100 percent in the competition for line-outs until tonight, I think we lost five or six [line-outs].

“The areas we gave them penalties were absurd, two foul plays, one or two crazy breakdown penalties.

“I think we were absolutely magnificent defensively, they’re [Munster] a really good attacking team, it needed us to give away those penalties for them to get the entries, so the defence was a really good effort.

“I think we were just a team fighting for a win, I think there were some issues around our shape in how we want to attack as we didn’t get much flow but that’s it.”

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Dobson also praised his side for upping the intensity in the second half following a poor start in the first half.

“I thought in the first half we were really poor, they got on top of us and got the little tips [passes] away, offloads and bridge passes and the second half I thought we started with a lot of intensity.”

Dobson also admitted after Damian Willemse’s player of the match performance at No.10 that he would have some selection headaches, but praised the utility back for being a ‘team man’.

“The thing with Damian [Willemse] which we get crucified for is playing him in different positions when he’s such a team man.” Dobson said.

“Damian’s not going to sit there and say him or Warrick [Gelant] must play No.15. He will say ‘wherever the team needs me’.

“I mean we played him at No.13 in that quarterfinal against Glasgow.

“We just didn’t give him the No.13 jersey because social media would’ve killed us, but he was playing at outside centre.

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“Last week he made mistakes but they weren’t flyhalf-related mistakes, but his last match at No.10 was two years ago [for the Springboks], so you can expect a couple of mistakes but today [Saturday] he was really good, so we’re going to have some headaches.” He added.

On Warrick Gelant, Dobson explained the fullback’s role in the side but also gave insight on the unseen work he does well that contributes to the team’s efforts.

Dobson also confirmed that Gelant and Willemse took some knocks but that it doesn’t seem too serious and that he’s hoping they’ll be fine ahead of the Stormers’ clash against Glasgow Warriors in Stellenbosch this coming weekend.

“He completely sees the field and he’s trying to make things happen and that’s what this team needs,” Dobson said

“I think we ground out a win, we weren’t the Stormers with the panache we sometimes can play with and that’s what Warrick’s job is to bring to us.

“He does force things and when they come off he’s the hero but I think what we don’t get about Warrick is his backfield covering, his conservative stuff.

“Connor Murray and Jack Crowley are really good in identifying backfield space and Warrick dealt with it well.

“Both Warrick and Damian took some serious knocks, it might solve themselves.” He added.

When asked by @rugby365com if the Stormers’ conversion rate is a cause for concern, Dobson admitted that his side isn’t clinical enough but stated that they had a tough week leading up to the Munster clash.

“We’re not clinical at the moment, it was a really grim week, a heavy week… it was a team that was being left out because of a poor tour – it was a tough week.”

Image credits: Hansie Linde