Errors prove costly as Stormers’ URC top-two hopes take a hit after Connacht loss

He couldn’t speak for the emotion on the field, but Stormers director of rugby John Dobson feels the high error rate of his side contributed to their loss against Connacht on Saturday afternoon in Cape Town.

Dobson specifically highlighted the individual errors of a couple of players and, in the same breath, said they might look at some positional changes ahead of what could be a defining home match against the Glasgow Warriors this coming Saturday.

Following their 33-24 loss at the DHL Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Stormers now find themselves in a fight to maintain second place on the United Rugby Championship (URC) log.

Another loss could be disastrous for their bid to secure a home quarter-final, while it could potentially jeopardise their entire play--off campaign. They need a victory to be sure of a place in the knockouts.

“Glasgow will be massive,” Dobson said about the next match.

“To get nothing out of today (against Connacht) was very disappointing. Now, we have to win all three of our last games to get where we want to be. That is easier said than done. We have Glasgow and then two 4G pitches away against two teams (Ulster and Cardiff) competing for the top eight.

“We’ve put ourselves in a bit of a position now. If we hadn’t made some of those mistakes, we would not have lost the game. The bounce of a kick, a dropped restart, and an intercept. All of our mistakes. I don’t think we can use the tough week and the loss of Chippie (Solomon) as an excuse.”

Captain Ruhan Nel said this had been one of the toughest weeks the team had experienced following the loss of their long-term team manager.

However, the team do not want to use the emotional period as an excuse or a cop-out for their performance. He feels they have done enough in the game to secure a victory, but a lack of concentration undid some of their efforts.

“It was a heavy week, but we did more than enough in that game to pick up the win. The loss is 100% on us,” Nel said.

“There was no fault with our plan. For the majority of the first half, we were in their territory, but we could not convert it into points. Our game drivers were making the right decisions, and we isolated their backfield. In the second half, we probably became too individualistic.

“We can probably point to a lot of things, but we did enough to get ourselves over the line with the opportunities we created.”