Coach John Dobson credited the Stormers leaders for rallying the troops after the defending champions were ambushed by Edinburgh’s “forward thrust” in Cape Town on Saturday. DYLAN JACK reports.
The Stormers produced a magnificent effort to come from an early 10-0 deficit and seal a bonus-point victory over Edinburgh, despite playing with 14 men for a good chunk of the match.
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“The game feels like last season. The only thing perhaps which I flagged, we didn’t work hard at the start of the game, which is unlike us,” Dobson said after the match, attributing the slow start to the returning Springboks who have not seen much action in recent weeks.
“As [captain] Marvin [Orie] pointed out, we paid a bit of rent today. Joseph hasn’t played much, Brannas hasn’t played much, Neethling hasn’t played much, Salmaan hasn’t played much.
“I don’t think we must read much into it. We will be much better for today.”
Dobson admitted that the way Edinburgh dominated the physical exchanges and targeted the Stormers at the scrum in the first 30 minutes took him by surprise, but said he was proud of how the team’s leadership responded in the final 50 minutes.
“It was amazing leadership today. I have to give Marvin and his leadership group credit for the way we got back into the fight.
“Edinburgh really brought it. We didn’t expect that, I must be honest. We didn’t prepare the players properly for that forward thrust. We thought it would be more all-court.
“To stand up and get off the canvas like that was really special. It echoes last season. We didn’t hit our straps, but when we get more possession, which comes from discipline, then we will get better.”
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Edinburgh coach Mike Blair said he felt his side could have benefitted more from their scrum dominance.
“We fronted up really well. We were disappointed with our start against the Vodacom Bulls last week and thought we showed a huge amount of control and pressure in those first 30 minutes.
“I’m surprised the Stormers weren’t penalised more. We had a dominant scrum, going forward, it goes to ground and the referee says we have to play the ball. We should be rewarded for being dominant in that area.
“The Stormers were excellent on defence and put a huge amount of pressure on our attack. I felt our scrum was managed a little bit to get the game going when in fact our dominance should have resulted in more points and yellow cards for illegal scrummaging.”
Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix
