Dobson: 'We've put ourselves in a bit of a position now'
REACTION: Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson gave a brutal, honest assessment of his team’s way forward following their 24-33 Round 15 United Rugby Championship loss to Connacht.
The Stormers came into the clash as favourites, given their impeccable record at DHL Stadium and their overall season thus far.
During an online media conference this past week, Dobson said that the Stormers need four points against Connacht to secure a play-off berth, but left the pitch empty-handed at the end of 80 minutes.
When asked by Rugby365 how important next week’s home clash against Franco Smith’s Glasgow Warriors is, Dobson said it’s “massive” and stated that their remaining games are non-negotiables to win to hit their goal of hosting a play-off match.
Following the clash against the Warriors, the Stormers will go on a two-game tour to Ireland and Wales to face Ulster and Cardiff, respectively.
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“Massive…to get nothing out of this game is very disappointing,” Dobson told Rugby365.
“We now have to win all three [remaining games] to get where we want to be, but that’s much easier said than done.”
“Glasgow [next week] and then two 4G [pitch matches] away against two teams competing for the top eight.
“We’ve put ourselves in a bit of a position now.”
Commenting on the result, Dobson emphasised that the Stormers were too loose in their approach, especially during the second half, which provided Connacht with point-scoring opportunities.
“We were loose throughout. There were a couple of patches in the first half that we spoke about where we shuffled it around [too much].
“And secondly, there were some amazing stuff out there in the second half.
“We had their maul on the ropes, and at one instance we had a quick throw in to Warrick [Gelant], but then Damian [Willemse] threw a forward pass, Connacht got the scrum and ended up scoring.
“I thought we were very loose. We said at halftime, let’s be more direct and limit the passing [on attack].
“But we kept shovelling [the ball] back repeatedly and conceded a penalty for sealing off.
“It felt at times we needed to invent to beat them, when in reality the template was there to do it; we saw it with our mauling getting on top.”
Dobson added: “We had the last scrum, I know it’s their ball. We had a great [replacement] tight five, and we didn’t move them a centimetre in a scrum we needed to win to get two [log] points and we didn’t do that, so Connacht did well.
Captain Ruhan Nel doubled up on Dobson’s comments, admitting that the Stormers were their own worst enemy on the day.
“I felt we did more than enough in that game to put ourselves in the correct positions.
“I felt we defended great at certain times and then there were just a lack of concentration due to simple decisions, which gave them either a penalty that led to an entry, or we scored points and conceded soon after.”
