Stormers set for ‘must-win tour’ to UK: ‘It’s full metal jacket,’ says Dobson

The Stormers are fired up for their overseas tour after a morale boosting United Rugby Championship (URC) win over Irish giants Leinster gave them good momentum to head over to the UK with.

After suffering a shock 27-21 defeat to Ospreys in Cape Town a week earlier, the Stormers bounced back to beat the table toppers 42-12 at the weekend, although it was a weakened side missing most of their best players.

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Despite that, Stormers coach John Dobson was just delighted to be back to winning ways and he hopes that they can build-on this past weekend’s performance as they target a first overseas win in the URC this season as they try to hunt as many points as they can from their last few pool games.

Play catch-up

“The previous tour was at the start of the season. We knew we would come home and have to catch up. The loss to Ospreys at home knocked us properly,” admitted Dobson.

“We are now under a massive points situation. The devastation of that result against Ospreys was that we could have finished that weekend two points behind the Bulls, looking for a home playoff. That’s pretty much unrecoverable.

“Now, it’s a must-win tour. We’ve never had that sort of feeling before, our level of desperation. We are taking our Springboks. This will be a different mindset from the first tour. It’s full metal jacket to try win every game.”

In their first tour overseas at the start of the season, which they did without their Bok stars, the Stormers struggled immensely, suffering four straight defeats against Glasgow Warriors, Benetton, Munster and Cardiff.

Massive battle

With them now in a massive battle for a place in the URC top eight the Stormers will have to be much better and will have to target a full house of points in their first game against Dragons in Wales, as their second match against Connacht in Ireland will be incredibly tough.

“We have to be better in northern conditions than we have been. But we’ve made improvements this season, particularly around contestables, which is important if you want to win over there. We won the contestable kicks against Leinster and I am pleased about that,” said Dobson.

“The last time we went to Galway a few seasons ago (in January) we had to train with snow falling and being driven by an icy wind.

“We are assuming it will be different for us there this time and the two grounds we play on should suit our style, perhaps more than our home field helped us in the conditions we encountered in the final last year and last week against the Ospreys.”