WATCH: 'Unlucky moments' decided Stormers' Top 4 race
REACTION: Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson admitted his team’s ambition of reaching the United Rugby Championship top four has diminished after Saturday’s defeat to Bulls.
In a rescheduled Round One encounter, the Bulls came out with pure intent and secured a dramatic 33-32 win over the Stormers at the Cape Town Stadium.
The North-South derby lived up to its billing – it was entertaining and could’ve gone either way.
The Stormers put up a brave fight despite missing several key players, but a late missed conversion by replacement Clayton Blommetjies denied them the narrow win.
Flyhalf Jurie Matthee also missed three kicks which would’ve sealed the win for the hosts.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Dobson praised his team’s fighting spirit but pinpointed the scrums as the main troubling area during the encounter.
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“I am proud of the way we fought at the end, and we had [multiple] 22m entries.
“But not so happy with the scrums, especially in the first half… it put us on the backfoot early on,” Dobson stated.
“Regarding kicks, we missed those couple of kicks but they missed a couple which would’ve taken them two scores clear.
“We were also very inaccurate at the breakdown once or twice that hurt us but well done to the Bulls. We were very close to winning it.”
He added: “There were a couple of unlucky moments, like the ricochet try.
“I reckoned if Sazi [Sandi] had hung onto the ball in the last breakdown, we would be walking over the try line. We were on the ropes, and it was a terrible moment for us to lose. Shows that the team has a lot of fight.
“We are still not hitting out straps and we were so imperious in the last 20 minutes.
“However, in my mind, we got ourselves under pressure in the first half in the scrums.”
The defeat is the Stormers’ sixth out of 10 outings. They managed to secure two losing bonus points which pushed them to 10 on the log.
They will take on Lions next week at Ellis Park followed by a rematch against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld – encounters they can not afford to lose if they want to secure a spot in the play-offs.
“The next two weeks we are in the Highveld, and it is going to be tough,” Dobson said.
“My gut says this was a chance for a Top Four spot, I might be wrong given the other results.
“But we will be fine for Top Eight.
“We have shown today [Saturday] we do not need to lose again this season.”
The coach said the won’t be a lot of squad changes, but Paul de Villiers and Willie Engelbrecht might come into the frame after their performance for Stormers XV against Boland last week.
