A dejected John Dobson rued the Stormers’ ill-discipline and lineout inefficiency in their 30-19 defeat to the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium.
Saturday night’s loss was not only the first of the Vodacom URC campaign for the Cape side, but it also demoted them to second on the log, with the Glasgow Warriors now the leaders.
For a side that entered the round ranked first in the competition for scrum, maul and lineout success, the Stormers were unable to impose themselves in the areas that have underpinned their strong start to the campaign.
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“Both sides of the lineout were poor, the penalties we conceded – that and the discipline,” Dobson said after the match.
“Foul-play penalties are frustrating. Had we addressed those things, I think the score could’ve been in our favour.
“If you look at the URC stats before this round, we were the No 1 lineout, No 1 maul and No 1 scrum, but today you didn’t get that picture. We’ll be back next week [against the Sharks at Kings Park].”
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While the Stormers found their way into the Sharks’ 22 with regularity, they struggled to convert pressure into points.
Captain Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu echoed that sentiment, pointing to the psychological toll of squandered opportunities.
“The one place where we can tap ourselves on the back is that we got the entries [into the 22], so that’s one box ticked,” he said.
“I think the difference today was when you get momentum and gain entries, you usually smash and grab a couple of points from there or put the team under pressure via penalties or cards, and then the energy is re-injected to you.
“It wasn’t a thing of losing a ball on the 22 or failing on entry. It was failing on entry and being put right back in our half. It’s very dejecting from an energy point of view.”
Dobson admitted the performance was particularly painful given the occasion, with over 52,000 fans filling the stadium for the coastal derby.
“I’ll tell you what feels horrible. The people of Cape Town have come out and we produced comfortably our worst performance of the season and it wasn’t even a thriller at the end,” he said.
“From that point of view [the loss] feels terrible. But we’ve got a plan for next week which we’d already made before this result and we’ll be better.”
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
