‘We fought for every scrap,’ says satisfied Dobson after Stormers win

Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson was pleased with a major improvement in their scrum performance that assisted them to edge the Bulls 19-16 in their wet weather North-South United Rugby Championship (URC) derby at Loftus over the weekend.

In the previous game between the two rivals, in Cape Town in early February, the Stormers were dominated by the Bulls pack, which helped the Pretoria side clinch a 33-32 win.

This time around, in testing conditions, the Stormers put in a much better showing, aided by the returns of Neethling Fouche and Ali Vermaak, who missed out on the first game, although the Bulls still managed to see a few calls go their way.

“We had one or two scrums early where we looked promising. But they got us in the third or fourth scrum where they deserved the penalty. I couldn’t see what was happening on the far side of Wilco (Louw) and Ali in the first half,” explained Dobson.

“There were two AR (assistant referee) calls which left us a little bit frustrated. They took our soul in Cape Town (at scrum time), I know the Clayton Blommetjies missed conversion is blamed (for the loss), but the damage was done in the scrums. So it was a big focus.

“They didn’t get that massive dominance they got in Cape Town, but they still got four or five penalties, which worries me a little bit.

“When you get destroyed in the scrum, you lose your energy. So, the huge thing this week was about absorbing that pressure and stopping their big carriers off nine. For some reason they didn’t get that going in the match.”

Thrilled with win

Overall, Dobson was thrilled with the win and admitted it was the team’s fighting spirit that carried them through a game in incredibly testing conditions, although they did attempt to play a bit too much in the first half before becoming more kicking focused in the second half which made a difference.

The performance of flyhalf Jurie Matthee also helped the Stormers, with him contributing 14 of their points after nailing all his kicks at goal, which was a big improvement from the game in Cape Town where he missed a number of easy shots at goal.

“It’s obviously a special place to win. From the first kick-off, the way we counter-rucked, we just fought and fought and fought for every scrap, every contact point, everything like that. So that was probably the most pleasing thing,” said Dobson.

“And then if I was to single somebody out, I’d say Jurie Matthee. He’s an unheralded guy and in those conditions, he did a really, really good job. But the most pleasing thing was our fight, you know, we didn’t go away.

“I still thought we did a bit (too much) with the ball, and the first half was a bit frustrating. I thought we could have kicked earlier. And we were trying to sort of move it around a bit, which was one of the messages at half time. 

“That sounds really simplistic, kick quicker, kick sooner. I thought we were poor like that in the first half. But then in the second half, we were really a bit more direct with the kicking.”