John Dobson has called on the Stormers to be more clinical following their 22-18 defeat Bbyenetton in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship this past Saturday.
The Stormers held an 11-point lead heading into the final quarter of the match, but imploded spectacularly at the end as they suffered a four-point loss at the hands of Italian side Benetton.
In the aftermath of the unexpected result, Dobson lashed his team for their wastefulness in a game they should have won.
“I think it was a very disappointing performance from us overall,” he said. “To be 11 points up and throw it away like that was poor. Our lineout was poor and there were a few scrum penalties. Our discipline was poor. I am happy with the breakdown. I think we learned some big lessons today. With the players we had on the field we should have closed it out.”
The biggest area of concern for Dobson is the Stormers’ malfunctioning lineout, an area of their game he believes needs drastic improvement ahead of their showdown against Irish powerhouse Munster at Thomond Park in Limerick.
“Next week we go to Munster. There we will meet RG Snyman and Jean Kleyn in our lineout, we lost five or six in the game and that is massive. To give away penalties in the middle of the field … our discipline can certainly improve.
“I thought when we were good when we tried to play with some width and some rhythm and some aspects of our kicking game were also good.
“We are certainly going to have to improve our discipline and lineout – we have to be at 90% there, not at 50 or 60 like we were. I didn’t completely understand some of the scrum stuff today, so we will look at that. The way we let ourselves down … we shouldn’t have made those errors that allowed entries for them.”
Like his Bulls counterpart Jake White, Dobson believes it will take time for the four South African franchises to get used to playing in Europe.
“They have these big one-off runners and we are not used to that in South Africa, we are used to more creativity and speed. We let our discipline slip in the second half, and these guys just sap it out of you.”
The Stormers take on Munster in Limerick on Saturday, followed by matches against Edinburgh and the Dragons to complete their four-game tour.
Photo: Luca Sighinolfi/INPHO/Shutterstock
