Dobson turns attention to Edinburgh — and win No 2 on the road for Stormers

The Stormers have swiftly turned their focus to their next challenge on tour, Edinburgh in Scotland, after picking up their first United Rugby Championship (URC) win of the season against Zebre in Parma over the weekend.

Having gone down 37-24 against Ospreys in Wales in their opening match, the Stormers bounced back in style with a 36-5 bonus point win over Zebre, giving them good momentum to head into their final match on tour.

They will also be up against an out of form Edinburgh, who have lost all three of their games so far, their opener at home against Leinster, followed by a 22-16 loss against the Bulls at Loftus, and a 55-21 thrashing by the Lions at Ellis Park.

Despite their dismal result against the Lions, and having to travel back home for the match against the Stormers, head coach John Dobson cautioned against underestimating a team that they believe will produce a strong challenge.

“Our goal from the tour is to get two wins. We used our free hit last week (against Ospreys). Edinburgh will be a very, very different prospect up at the Hive. It’s going to be a difficult game, but we’ve got some confidence. We want to get two wins,” explained Dobson.

“Had we gone there without a win, we would have lacked a bit of confidence. Now it’s everything to play for. I feel like we are in a good space.

“The other good thing is even though we planned for Steven Kitshoff and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to be with us today and they weren’t, it looks like we haven’t picked up any (more) injuries. We are a healthy and happy squad and we will put everything into getting a second win on tour.”

Zebre match

In the match against Zebre the Stormers shelved their usual game plan of chasing tries, to build scoreboard pressure, as four penalties from the boot of flyhalf Jurie Mathee, and a converted try, gave them a 19-0 lead early in the second half.

They then managed to run in three tries in the final 21 minutes of the match to clinch an important bonus point to make it a top result.

“It was always going to be a scoreboard-pressure building of the innings. We must give credit to Zebre. They are a very different team,” said Dobson.

“Their defence and physicality may not have come across on TV, but it was like a wall in front of us. We just had to build the scoreboard pressure to make them chase the game.

“With 15 minutes to go, we were where we wanted to be, building the innings. There were one or two forced passes when we realised a fourth try was on the table and decided to push for it. But we really wanted to bank a win.

“In terms of what we wanted, this was exactly the performance. We put them under the pump physically. It took a lot to break that defensive wall down.”