URC semifinals: John Dobson proud of Stormers as eyes turn to Connacht

It was a whirlwind quarterfinal weekend in the United Rugby Championship (URC), with the Stormers emerging as the big winners with a home semi-final against Connacht confirmed for this coming Saturday.

The Cape Town side produced a strong performance to brush aside the Bulls 33-21 in their quarterfinal clash, and along with Connacht upsetting Ulster 15-10 in Belfast in the first knockout of the weekend on Friday night, it secured them a home semi.

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A few weeks ago the Stormers were surprisingly upset by Munster at the Cape Town Stadium, which was their first home loss in over 16 months, which allowed Ulster to sneak ahead of them to secure second place on the URC log.

Only for Connacht to do them a massive favour and give them at least one more home match this season.

Dobson admitted that the quarterfinal win was a more emphatic one than they have had recently over the Bulls.

“In the context of our rivalry against the Bulls for the last while, it (the win) was one of our best. It was probably a bit better than the win (in Cape Town) in December.  I was very pleased with it,” said Dobson.

“We possibly could have got a bit more reward in the first half. We were irritated with ourselves and spoke about it at half time because they scored a try without making a pass, because of our own poor discipline and a good maul by them. That’s always the danger with the Bulls.

“In the second half I think they played with a lot of character and we weren’t at our best. We didn’t implement our plan fully. We wanted to make the Bulls play catch up and we got that, but we didn’t execute properly from then.”

Semi-final match-up

Looking on to the semi-final the Stormers will be favourites to progress to the final and try and defend their crown, but Dobson knows that they cannot underestimate Connacht who have enjoyed a superb second half of the season.

“To be able to do this again next week is so special for us. We were chatting about Connacht a couple of weeks ago and it’s similar to what we say about ourselves. As (Seabelo) Senatla says, they’ve got ‘dawg’ in them and they have,” said Dobson.

“They won seven in a row (earlier in the season). There is something there that is worrying, the way they fight, and their attack shape is really good.

“Connacht has a great story, from a windy greyhound track in the far west with the smallest budget (in Ireland). They don’t go away. They will be tougher than we think.”

The other semifinal will see tournament favourites Leinster face massive local rivals Ulster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Leinster comfortably brushed aside the Sharks 35-5 in their quarterfinal, while Munster produced a slight upset in beating Glasgow Warriors 14-5 in Scotland.