Stormers aim to bounce back after coach Dobson lashes out

There was no place to hide for the beleaguered Stormers players on Monday as they were given a tongue-lashing by fuming coach John Dobson following the fiasco against the Bulls at Loftus last weekend.

In particular, it was the lack of commitment on defence and their failure to deal with the Bulls’ effective kicking game during the Super Rugby Unlocked clash that Dobson chose to put under the magnifying glass.

According to big lock forward JD Schickerling, the Cape Town side’s head coach, who described their 39-6 defeat as “embarrassing”, wanted the players to man-up and take responsibility before facing Griquas this weekend in Kimberley.

“Monday was a bit tough for us as players, but we needed that, and as a collective we addressed and analysed where we went wrong and how we could progress from there,” he said.

“But we have put it behind us now and shifted our focus to Griquas.”

Schickerling ascribed it to nothing more than “just a poor day” from the players’ point of view, and maintained that they continued to trust their system completely.

He said everything was in place ahead of the Bulls clash and attributed what eventually transpired on the field to a combination of poor execution and individual errors from the players.

“We have been struggling the last few games to get out of the blocks quickly and get a good start, and it is something we have spoken about at length,” Schickerling said.

“Ironically, the first 20 (minutes) against the Bulls we did start well but then lost momentum and maybe took our foot off the pedal.”

Stormers skills and analysis consultant Labeeb Levy said they had several team meetings since the weekend and tweaked a few elements.

“We have learned some lessons and coach John Dobson is already working hard to fix those areas. The players have all owned up and taken responsibility and we are certainly looking for a turnaround this weekend,” said Levy.

“We are definitely looking for more commitment on defence and worked on a few areas in that department. That was the area which hurt us the most during the game.”

Levy said they had also identified their maul defence as a problem area and changed a few elements there as well.

“We were also concerned with our work rate, some post-tackle errors and tackle techniques, but we are committed to sorting it out,” he said.

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