No change to Stormers game plan after Ospreys draw

The Stormers will not be changing any plans ahead of their final United Rugby Championship tour clash against Cardiff in Wales next weekend, despite their draw against Ospreys this past Friday night.

This was the first time in 15 games that the defending champs were unable to win the match, after a late try for the hosts in dreadful playing conditions saw the teams locked at 16-all at the end.

However the Stormers are still very well placed having won three games and drawn one of their opening four, and they will not be changing what they had planned to do ahead of their tour.

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“Before the tour started we had plans in place of who we were going to play and who we were going to give a rest and we won’t change that ahead of the Cardiff game,” explained Stormers coach John Dobson.

“We obviously sent Damian (Willemse) and Herschel (Jantjies) home, and brought Kitsy (Steven Kitshof) and Joseph (Dweba) over.

“So we are going to be quite disciplined about sticking to the processes. Frans (Malherbe) will be heading to join us, Kitsy and Joseph will still be with us. So it will be a good team that we send out against Cardiff, and we will just stick to our plans.”

Dobson did however admit that the Cardiff match was a must win game now and that they hoped for better conditions to be able to play a more expansive game.

“That game has obviously become more important for us now. We want to play our game and hopefully on that surface (4G) we can do that and play some rugby,” said Dobson.

Atrocious weather

Looking back at the match Dobson was happy with the team’s performance, considering the atrocious weather conditions that they had to deal with, as the rain bucketed down for the majority of the match.

“I thought it was one of our better performances when you consider the conditions. To be unbeaten after four games we can’t complain too much, especially since we have missed a lot of the players who played in the final (at various stages),” admitted Dobson.

“But I think we will be better for this (performance) and we could have won the game, if we had just been able to manage the game a bit better towards the end of the match.

“You could also see from the draw that Ospreys were the more cheerful team, which shows how much it meant to them and I thought the way they stayed in the fight was really good.”

Dobson continued: “So we are satisfied, and we are playing with good energy. We are just letting ourselves down in one or two areas, like at the lineouts and the scrum looked a little creaky in the first half.

“But both teams tried to play some positive rugby at the end which was good for the competition. We had a go, Ospreys had a go and neither team wanted to settle for the draw.”