‘Everyone wants to beat us,’ says Stormers coach John Dobson

Stormers coach John Dobson says there is no panic in his camp despite the reigning champions’ 14-match winning run in the United Rugby Championship coming to an end.

The visitors from Cape Town were held to a 16-16 draw by the Ospreys in atrocious conditions in a rain-lashed Swansea last Friday night. They now remain in south Wales to prepare for a meeting with Cardiff at the Arms Park on Saturday.

“That match has obviously become more important for us now. Hopefully in that game we can play some rugby,” said Dobson.

“This result won’t change our selection policy. We got to be quite disciplined about sticking to the process. Frans Malherbe will come in the mix, Steven Kitshoff and Joseph Dweba will still be around, so we are not going to fly guys back out.

“We are 17 points from four games, it’s a reasonable start. It’s not a reason for us to sort of panic. A draw in these conditions against a good Ospreys side is no reason for us to throw out our plans.

“We can’t complain too much with being unbeaten after four games. Quite a few guys have been missing. I was worried about us this season because we lost a few guys, had more guys go to the national team, but we actually feel we have got more depth than last season with the young players coming through.”

ALSO READ: No plan to Stormers game plan after Ospreys draw

Dobson further acknowledged that the Stormers now face new challenges as defending URC champions. “Everyone wants to beat us. You could see the Ospreys were the more cheerful team with the draw at the end, which shows how much it meant to them,” he said.

“Martin Anayi (URC CEO) said at the pre-season launch that they want to get to the American thing of ‘Any Given Sunday’ or ‘Any Given Saturday’. We feel like that now. I promise you, Zebre (the previous week) was tough. We were very defensive. This was a real fight against the Ospreys. We will have a hard one in Cardiff.

“I think it’s beautiful for the league. The days of the Irish provinces resting six guys to go somewhere, you won’t get away with it any longer, which is good. It’s a great competition.”