John Dobson admitted he was panicking as the Stormers threatened to let slip a 20-point lead and an SA Shield ‘grand slam’ against the Sharks on Saturday .
The Stormers held on to claim a 29-23 victory over the Sharks after leading 26-6 early on in the second half at a packed Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
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The nailbiting win saw the defending champions complete a historic home and away sweep of the other three South African franchises.
While the Stormers were eager to downplay the potential achievement in the build-up to Saturday’s clash, Dobson admitted after the match that it would have felt awful if his side had let it slip after being in such a commanding position.
“It actually was important to us at the end,” Dobson said. “Its a nice achievement for this group. That’s why I was panicking towards the end there. I am not sure how often this is going to happen, that you are going to get a South African team that wins all three home and away.”
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Dobson was, however, disappointed with the manner in which his team nearly threw away their lead, especially since the Stormers had multiple opportunities to seal the match in the second half.
He felt the Stormers missed Dan du Plessis. The in-form inside centre was withdrawn from the team as a concussion precaution after experiencing headaches on Thursday and Friday.
“In that second half, how many tries did we throw away? At some point, when we just had a three point lead, I thought we would just take a draw,” said Dobson. “But to give up this clean sweep would be sad.
“I was very disappointed with discipline in the second half. It was poor. We definitely should have gone for poles when we were 15 points up [just after Yaw Penxe scored for the Sharks]. It was very poor. There were some disappointing elements.”
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Photo: INPHO/Steve Haag Sports/Thinus Maritz