John Dobson was delighted with how the DHL Stormers managed to contain the threat posed by Harlequins on their way to a Champions Cup last-16 victory.
The Stormers progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup by claiming a thrilling 32-28 victory over the English Premiership side in Cape Town on Friday evening.
REPORT: Deon double sends Stormers to final eight
While the final score gives the game the appearance of a tight contest, the Stormers were actually in control for large parts of it and held a 32-7 lead before Harlequins fired back with a late flurry of tries in the final 10 minutes.
“We were very good, absolutely superb,” Dobson said after the match. “Everything went according to our plan. A lot of people will talk about the last six minutes, but this Harlequins team has come back and beaten Bristol from 30 points down. They have beaten a lot of teams like that. The game was well won by then.
“Our plan was to defend very well, which we did. When I say we are happy with the performance, I don’t mean to say that we thrashed Harlequins. They are a good team, a really, really good team. They never go away, as we saw in those last few minutes.
“The way we defended, we wanted to put them under pressure at the halfbacks, put Marcus Smith under a little bit of pressure. I thought we slowed the ball down nicely. Deon [Fourie] and Kitsie [Steven Kitshoff] were both outstanding.
“We made a couple of mistakes in the back five minutes of the first half. We gave away some penalties and lost a set piece or two. We also got a bit loose in the middle of the second half. To be 32-7 up at around the 70th minute is pretty special, especially in our first Champions Cup knockout game against a team of that ability.”
As well as containing the plethora of attacking threats that Harlequins had in their arsenal, including Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen, the Stormers scored some pretty incredible tries along the way.
Fourie’s first-minute opening try set the tone for the rest of the game, as the veteran flanker grabbed a first-half double before Damian Willemse produced an incredible acrobatic finish in the corner.
“We spoke about it during the week. We are who we are and how we play is actually perfect for this game, which needed massive defence and character. We also couldn’t say to Manie [Libbok] that he now has to play the territory because he is playing in a Champions Cup knockout game.
“That first try from Deon is exactly the kind of rugby that we want to play. It’s is underpinned by a massive work rate on defence. That’s how we want to be playing.”
Depending on the result of Sunday’s playoff between Exeter Chiefs and Montpellier, the Stormers will either be hosting the French outfit or jetting off to take on another Premiership side in the quarter-finals next weekend.
That game will come ahead of the final two Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixtures, where the Stormers will look to secure second place in home games against Munster and Benetton.
“My blood is blue,” Dobson joked, in reference to Montpellier’s blue home jersey. “Of course we want to play at home because our cause is the people of Cape Town so if we could be back here next week, it would be great.
“It will be tough. If we play on Sunday in Exeter, we will be under pressure to get back for Munster. The Champions Cup is prestigious, it is the tournament. We will just have to get through it. If we do tweak, it will be for the Munster game, back some of the URC regulars to get us a home win.
“We will go full noise for Exeter.”
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