John Dobson made no excuses after the DHL Stormers were beaten by Exeter Chiefs in the Champions Cup quarter-finals, despite the absence of Deon Fourie and the tricky travel schedule to England. DYLAN JACK reports.
Exeter Chiefs blew a very flat Stormers side off a blustery Sandy Park to claim a 42-17 victory and progress to the Champions Cup semi-finals on Saturday night.
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The damage was all done in the first half, as Exeter scored three tries in the opening half-hour, while the Stormers lacked their characteristic intensity and accuracy on defence.
“In that first half, every single thing went against us,” Dobson said after the match. “Everything just went wrong and went Exeter’s way. They deserve credit for the intensity that they came out with. We were blown away.
“Everything’s new in this competition for us. Being here and around this, you realise how big it is just to make the European quarter-final. I am proud of that. It will take a while to process because of those first 25 minutes. It was just bizarre.”
The Stormers did face a tricky task of navigating their way to Exeter during the week and were without influential veteran flank Deon Fourie due to a facial fracture.
Dobson confirmed Fourie is likely to be out for the next few weeks, and while he admitted the Stormers missed their back row poacher, he said travel problems were not to blame for his side’s poor first half.
“What worried me a bit in that first half was that we weren’t folding on defence like we should have been. We looked flat. I thought we handled the cards we were dealt in terms of travel as best we could. We did everything we could. We travelled in three or four different parties and got in late on Wednesday.
“I just think Exeter were so sublime. It was a performance of yore, when they were European champions. I can’t really extrapolate that onto the travel.
“We want to be in this competition. It is two of the last three weeks where we have really kicked poorly in windy conditions. That has more of an influence on the outcome than the travel, without question.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but in those first 20 minutes we were making too many single tackles, we weren’t making steals and the ball they were getting was too fast. That spirals and that’s certainly where we missed Deon,” Dobson added. “There were a couple of steal opportunities, he would have called an extra cleaner in or slowed the ball down.
“We did miss him a hell of a lot. I didn’t expect it to be quite like it was. Credit to Exeter for how they played, but we did miss him and Nama Xaba, out and out stealers.”
The Stormers will now focus on their final two home Vodacom URC fixtures, starting with a clash against Munster in Cape Town on Saturday, 14 April.
“This week we will have a one day training week again. That might end up costing us a second-place finish. But I would never take the experience of today away from these players, in terms of the achievement of being in the quarter-finals,” said Dobson.
“We will be better off for today. We just have to travel well, rest and try to lift a very disappointed changing room up for Munster. As coaches we must just sharp for that training day and hopefully we can go 22 games in a row at DHL Stadium and get the home playoff.”
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