Stormers coach John Dobson celebrates Loftus looting in win over star-studded Bulls
UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP
Stormers centre Damian Willemse is tackled by two Bulls players during their URC match.
Image: AFP
Coach John Dobson reckons his Stormers' 32-19 defeat of the Bulls on Saturday afternoon is one of the best results his team has had in Pretoria.
The Cape team went into the match after three demoralising defeats in a row, all to South African opposition. In contrast, the Bulls were heavily tipped to win the game because of the rhythm they had shown in rattling up four consecutive wins.
“From where we came from, there was a lot of doubt, a lot of questions, a lot of noise around some of our players, people asking ‘What is wrong with the Stormers?’” Dobson reflected.
“We were under a lot of pressure after having started the competition unbeaten. What we were doing was being defined by social media users. So this is probably our most important win in Pretoria, and one of our most dominant up here,” he said.
Typically in the URC, the Stormers dominate their South African opposition, but that has not always been the case this season.
“I think we are at about 50 percent?” Dobson said of his team’s performance in the SA derbies. “The SA derbies are different from the other league games; we are used to a bit more success than we have had this season. A game like this, I was so impressed with how we contained Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, they are seriously good Springboks.
“This last week, I watched our game against the Bulls in Cape Town when we beat them 13-8. The score was level with two minutes to go. That was a proper Test match,” Dobson continued. “So this is a big win for us, this was not a Bulls team in crisis, it was a Bulls team with momentum.”
In the middle of the first half, the Stormers lost two players to the sin bin, yet finished the half as the stronger team.
“I think the two yellow cards ironically turned the game for us, because of the character we had to show,” Dobson said. “The Bulls started with the rumble on us; they opened us up easily, but we then had some incredible defensive sets, and turned the ball over.
"That gave us belief. It was interesting for us to see Wilco Louw and Co come off after 45 minutes, we thought they would hang around a bit longer with their slow poison up front. Our forwards were exceptional.”