Stormers' 'attractive' style comes at a cost
REACTION: The Stormers seem intent on playing a fast-paced attractive brand of rugby, but it could be costly against sterner opposition in the coming weeks.
The Capetonians ran in six tries on their way to a 40-3 victory over Cardiff on Sunday, but it was far from a complete performance from John Dobson’s team
A number of other opportunities were butchered by the hosts because of a lack of patience on attack and the Stormers head coach says it was a frustrating aspect of his team’s game.
“For us to be direct it means don’t force that last pass,” said Dobson.
“When we got in behind the team the only way to let them back in is to make a handling mistake, so it is a frustration for us.
“It’s a team that is desperate to play really nice attractive rugby. They feel the space and they can feel the guy and they want to make the offload and it looks great, but it is costing us some points.
“That was the major frustration for us today [Sunday].”
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The need for accuracy
The Stormers’ next opponents in the United Rugby Championship will be Ulster in Cape Town and Dobson knows that his team will have to shift to a higher gear next weekend.
The team from Belfast are currently second in the standings on 49 points, which is one point behind leaders Leinster.
The Stormers are seventh in the standings with 34 points.
“They [Ulster] are a very big, physical and hard-carrying team,” said the Stormers coach.
“They are probably more direct than Cardiff and they are at the top of the URC. I saw them beat Leinster in appalling conditions two weeks ago.
“We would need to be more accurate at the set-piece than we were today [Sunday].
“Maybe a guy like Frans [Malherbe] is back in the mix.
“We need to be more accurate at the line-out and the maul. I don’t think we were good there at all.
“I thought when Cardiff kicked contestables we were not necessarily as good around the ball as we should have been.
“Those areas where we were loose at today are the areas that need to be sharpened up for next week.”
@rugby365com
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