VIDEO: Satisfied Dobson ready to 'prove a point' in play-offs

WATCH as Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson assessed his side following their 48-12 United Rugby Championship Round 17 victory over the Dragons.

The Stormers failed to convert most of their opportunities in the first half but scored 34 points during the second half to earn a bonus point victory.

Dobson lamented his side’s first half error count but credited them with turning it around in the second half.

The article continues below…

“Overall we achieved our objectives in terms of trying to maintain some of the elements of how we played against Benetton.

“It was always going to be much trickier in a game like this considering the conditions and the opposition etc.

“We have a standard around small stuff such as defence and breakdown reaction which were good. I’m happy with the performance In general.

“The problem with the first half is that we gave them seven scrum feeds due to forced [passes] balls in the wrong areas which we talked about a little bit before the game.

“The second half, however, felt like Benetton all over again the way we trapped them where we would kick into their 22 which gives them a horrible exit and created transitions [counter attacks] for us.

Dobson added: “If there’s any criticism of this team today [Saturday] is that maybe we forced one or two plays during the first half.

“Giving them six or seven scrum feeds is too much in the first half. Otherwise, we were good defensively.”

Meanwhile, Benetton upset the defending champions Glasgow Warriors by 33-7 which could change the play-off picture the Stormers had in mind should Leinster defeat the Warriors in the final round of the league phase.

Dobson admitted that they prepared for a quarterfinal in South Africa but would have no issues to travel to Scotland should that be their fate.

“We pretty much thought that we’re going to Durban [to face the Sharks] the whole time, but that seems increasingly unlikely.

“Should we go to Scotstoun [Stadium] we will leave the Saturday a week before. Because it’s a play-off we could travel pretty directly, rest the Sunday and put a proper training week in.

“Last year Glasgow [Warriors] had their full plump and we lost by 10 odd points in the end. There was a scrum call against Neethling [Fouche] when I felt we were hard in the mix.

“If we have to go that way then we will. If things go wrong next week [against Cardiff] we’ll have to go to Kings Park, but Pretoria wouldn’t be bad either.

“We play on Friday night so we’ll have to get our heads focussed on Scotstoun. We’ve got scar tissue there but we’ve also have a point to prove.”