DHL Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson said his team are primed to rebound despite their 15-21 defeat to the Sharks in Durban on Saturday.
“Today gave me hope, even though we are sitting with a defeat. We were without five or six of our Springboks. To come here and fight like we did gives me hope about the team. I saw a lot of our DNA out there. On other days, those aren’t going to go down like that."
“I feel quite confident that we can put together a proper run now, especially as those Springboks come back. To come here and do what we’ve done, in a funny way, gives me hope. There are way more positives and it gives us a good place to launch from."
Dobson admitted that wasted opportunities were the big difference. Having trailed 14-0 in the opening 20 minutes, the Stormers wrestled back control of the contest but failed to capitalise on opportunities.
“We created so many try-scoring opportunities. I think the Sharks also probably bottled one or two.”
“We were wasteful. I can name six opportunities off the top of my head and that was probably the difference."
“We can look back thinking we could’ve won the game right at the end there, but 40 minutes before that we lost the game because of the errors we made up until that point."
“I thought we were imperious in the second half. 65 minutes in, I thought we had the game under control. What happened at the end was a bit of a bonus to be honest.”
“What happened at the end there was a bonus if truth be told.”
Dobson said the injury to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Concussion) who had to leave the field after thirty minutes of play was a major setback.
“It was a helluva blow. I still want to go find out a bit more about it, but we’ve prepped all these plays for three weeks and then he goes off and then we actually messed up three starting plays."
“It was a blow and then once you lose the six-two [on the bench], we ended up with Herschel [Jantjies] on the wing for 10 or 12 minutes and he almost scores the winner.
