Following their 39-26 bonus-point victory over the Leicester Tigers, Stormers head coach John Dobson praised his team's character and fight to secure a place in the Investec Champions Cup knockout stages.
Despite a high error rate and "shoddy game management," Dobson highlighted the team's resilience, especially when down a man after their captain's sin-binning.
Dobson described the match as a "tough game, a very stressful one," but ultimately a "very good experience". The team, led by stand-in skipper Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, trailed early in the first half but managed a comeback to hold a narrow 15-14 lead at halftime.
“It was a tough game, a very stressful one, but a great match all around,” Dobson said of the battle against a determined Leicester outfit.”
“They were organised, although they left a lot of guys at home. That is the narrative across this tournament sometimes. However, it was still a really good Leicester team. We were a little bit flat in the second 20 minutes of the first half, and we weren’t putting pressure on them anywhere. Not at set-piece, on their or our lineout. That was a bit tricky for us.”
The pivotal moment came when Feinberg-Mngomezulu was shown a yellow card for a leading forearm in the second half. Ironically, the Stormers played their most impressive rugby during this period, with lock JD Schickerling scoring a crucial try to regain and secure the lead. Dobson noted this resilience and ability to "close it out very, very well for a young team" as a key takeaway.
“We showed some fight, and then you lose your skipper while you are one point ahead. That was a tricky yellow in Sacha’s defence. Imagine you have two guys coming at you, and you are trying to get through it. Your arm goes up (to fend or brace), and you get a yellow card.
“Going down to 14 men and we score a try to clinch the game. That is the narrative of this team; the fight and tactically we closed things down well.”