Cape Town - Stormers coach John Dobson praised winger Leolin Zas for his performance against Ospreys in their latest United Rugby Championship (URC) triumph in South Africa.
At the weekend, the Stormers beat the Welsh side 29-13 at the Cape Town Stadium. The positive result took them to five consecutive wins at home.
The 26-year-old scored a brace against a fully-loaded Ospreys team. Apart from that, he has consistently been one of the major attacking threats for the Stormers when he has donned the jersey.
After the game, Dobson said that he was pleased that Zas has shown what he can do with the Cape side.
“Ja, he is doing well,” said Dobson. “He is now one of the top try-scorers in the competition.
“He played well for Western Province and we rewarded him with that game against Zebre (Parma) and he has just taken his chance with both hands. So, I am pleased for him. He has been through a tough time in his career over the last couple of years, so it’s great.”
The Stormers started like a house on fire in the opening half, and while they did cop two yellow cards in the last quarter, they proved too strong against an inaccurate Welsh outfit … even thought Ospreys managed to score at the death.
Speaking after the game, Dobson said: “I agree that the ending doesn’t feel nice and that it’s anticlimactic when they scored at the end but I was really happy with that performance given the quality of opposition.
“We also lost a leader in Ernst van Rhyn. Scarra (Ntubeni) and AndreHugo (Venter) weren’t there and Warrick Gelant has been the guy everybody is writing up. We had to move ’Gaza’ (Damian Willemse) out of position and start Rikus Pretorius.
“There were those circumstances and we were playing in conditions which obviously were much more comfortable for Ospreys than what we have seen in the last few weeks.
“It was a banana peel for us, because we had just beaten Ulster, who were very hyped up.
“We have the Bulls next week and, as I said in the week, Ospreys aren’t a sexy brand in South Africa.
“We really squeezed the team hard this week and they responded well.”
The win solidified the Stormers’ position in sixth place in the standings. They next take on the Bulls at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday.
@WynonaLouw