DHL Stormers coach John Dobson has accepted the Vodacom United Rugby Championship holders were outplayed in a last-gasp defeat against the Glasgow Warriors on Sunday.
With the two teams tied at 17-17 in the URC clash at Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow launched an onslaught in the final 10 minutes which eventually paid off when wing Sebastian Cancelliere scored his second of the match.
It was a heartbreaking loss for the Stormers, who three times clawed their way back into the contest just as it seemed to be getting away from them and led 12-10 at the break.
The Capetonians, though, were uncharacteristically slack on defence, while flyhalf Manie Libbok missed four out of five shots at goal, as the Warriors ran in four tries to claim a bonus-point 24-17 win.
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“We were poor in areas we didn’t want to be in. We probably over-committed to the defensive breakdowns. I thought we gave them a couple too many yards on defence when they carried off 10 and 9,” Dobson told reporters post-match.
“It was just a very bad day at the office against a team that’s really on a roll.
“They went deep to get around us. They executed really well against our line speed. They carried well and we were very poor at making double tackles and slowing the ball down. Their ball was too fast.
“We have to give them credit, they knew we were going to come with our line speed and they got around us.”
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He added: “There was a swirling wind and it got wetter and wetter during the game … but yes, I’m surprised Manie missed them [goal kicks]. He’s won us a lot of games with his boot so it just maybe wasn’t his day.”
The Stormers will next make the short trip to England to take on London Irish in the Champions Cup on Sunday afternoon as Dobson struggled to find positives from the weekend’s loss.
“I’m not going to blame the travel. Maybe with more training time we could have [been better] with our exits. We were really poor in exiting our own half.” he said.
“You saw at the end of the game there where we had a four-man lineout on our line five yards out … four minutes to play … all we had to do was exit and we got turned over.”
Photo: @GlasgowWarriors/Twitter