Dobson hails Stormers’ fight

John Dobson was delighted with the Stormers’s resilience in closing out the year on a three-win, capped off with a gritty victory over the Sharks.

The Stormers submitted the Sharks to end 2023 on a high note with a 16-15 win at a bustling Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.

It was a third successive win for the Stormers, after downing defending European champions La Rochelle and then claiming a seventh-straight victory against rivals the Vodacom Bulls.

While the result against the Sharks was more gritty than glamourous, the Stormers showed plenty of gumption to win the arm-wrestle, especially after suffering a major injury blow when veteran centre Ruhan Nel was carted from the field in the first half.

“I would very much like for our fizz to come back. There have been one or two moments. But this team has amazing resilience,” Dobson said after the match.

“There was a big change for us, when Ruhan Nel went off. I said I was comfortable during the week, but Jurie Matthee hasn’t even played Varsity Cup at fullback. It’s not his fault, he just hasn’t trained there. They also started to get the upper hand [at the scrum].

“Amazing fight”

“We have amazing fight. The fizz and the bling that we want will come back. There are glimpses of it.

“The story of today, when I was sitting in the coaching box and looked down during the second half and just thought that we have put these guys through the grinder. It was the first time in my career that I felt the message coming up from the players to say, ‘Listen, we’re out’.

“To play La Rochelle, Bulls and then this game…Ruben [van Heerden] played 240 minutes, Neethling [Fouche] 210 minutes. I thought physically we got done. But the way we stayed in the fight and closed the game out was very good.”

While the Stormers have not yet hit the flashy highs of attacking rugby that they’ve become renowned for over the past couple of seasons, Dobson said that the opportunities will come when the European teams travel to Cape Town in 2024.

“It’s going to click”

“It’s not worrying me, because I know it’s going to click, even though the body of evidence is against us. When we get to playing in Durban, at Loftus and against some of those European teams, every one of those teams above us has to come to South Africa.

“I will eat my hat if one of those teams wins two out of two. Most are going to be naught from two. When they start coming here, then we will get our rhythm.”

For a second week in a row, the Stormers played in front of around 40 000 fans, which Dobson said was the big positive of 2023 for his side.

“If you told me two years ago that we would sit here and there was talk about opening the upper tier, but we couldn’t because of security, for a game on 30 December, not hyped up in the same was as the north-south derby and guys have already spent their Christmas money, and we would still be playing in front of that, it’s incredible.

“We started this project a couple of years ago, to get Cape Town smiling. Today, as much as we didn’t win the game by much, it’s a realisation of the bigger picture, of what that crowd looks like, of who that crowd represents and the sacrifices that they made to be here.

“It’s incredible for us. That’s the reason these players don’t disappear in games.”

This article first appeared on sarugbymag.co.za. It is republished here with permission.