‘We are going to empty the tank against Sharks,’ says Stormers’ Dobson

The Stormers will be up against it when they take on a Springbok-laden Sharks in the United Rugby Championship (URC) at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday (5pm) but Director of Rugby John Dobson says his charges will be ready to empty the tank.

The Sharks and Stormers both had a tough start to their URC campaign, winning one game out of three on their overseas tour, before returning home, where the Capetonians beat Munster but lost to Glasgow Warriors, while the Durbanites beat both Glasgow and Munster.

Despite their star players having just returned from the Boks’ end-of-year-tour to the UK the Sharks have thrown most of them straight in for the match, which makes them favourites for what should be a thoroughly entertaining clash.

“We know the quality of the Sharks team and the occasion … how many World Cup winners they have, even with two injuries,” said Dobson.

“We would love to win this game. We have three really important, tough local URC derbies over the next five weeks and this is probably the toughest if you look at it on paper, against a Springbok-laden Sharks team playing in front of their fans.

“As much as accuracy is going to be important, we are going to have to stand up physically and put them under pressure, because there is quality across the park and if we make it too comfortable in terms of giving them time and not fronting up on defence it will be really tough for us.

“I don’t think this is a game many people are expecting us to win. But we are desperate and I think we have some nice plans in place (for them).”

Strong side

The Stormers themselves have named a strong side, featuring Bok bolters Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Ben-Jason Dixon, who both return from injury, while Manie Libbok will make his presence felt off the bench.

They are still missing a slew of injured stars, including Damian Willemse, Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff, Salmaan Moerat and Evan Roos, but Dobson believes they have enough quality to give the Sharks a run for their money, especially with the fight the Stormers have shown over the years.

“We are going to throw everything at them. This is a good team despite all the injuries. We are up for it and we have worked really hard for this game. We would love to beat them but it will be a lot easier said here in a press conference than on the field,” explained Dobson.

“I think we have been good like that. We have always fought our way through. In the history of the competition I don’t think we have been overwhelming favourites or have the biggest budget.

“But we really have dog and fight in us. It is almost going to be like one of those classics, where we will fight until the end, which is certainly the message. We are going to empty the tank and hopefully that will get us something.”