DHL Stormers’ Director of Rugby John Dobson expressed a mix of satisfaction with the result and concern over the team's "scrappy" performance against the Dragons on Sunday.
Despite the scrappiness, Dobson acknowledged it was a case of "job done" as the team secured a crucial bonus point. He credited the dominant scrum and solid defensive spells for ensuring the game never truly felt out of reach.
He highlighted the importance of the result in the context of the season, noting that the victory solidified their position in the top two, just five points behind league leaders Glasgow Warriors.
Despite moving into second place on the United Rugby Championship table, Dobson said that significant improvements are needed before their next clash against Edinburgh.
“It will be a different Edinburgh next weekend, and we’ll have to be much better than we were. Edinburgh are on last chance saloon, and obviously Pierre Schoeman, Duhan Van der Merwe and other guys will be back, and they’ll beef up this week.”
“They’ll be tough this week. See, Scotland can control those players; they can’t control Finn Russell, who is playing in England, that’s why he could play against the Lions. “I think in Edinburgh’s own mind, Ellis Park was an impossibility, so this puts this game down as a big one for them.”
“This is a six-day turnaround for us. We know as a collective we can and will be much better.”
Dobson was blunt about the team's execution, stating they will have to be "much better" in the coming weeks. He noted that the Stormers made "way too many errors," including conceding 19 turnovers and allowing "soft moments" defensively that led to the Dragons' three tries.
“We turned down a couple of easy threes to go for the corner and got nothing out of it. In fact, one of those decisions led to their entry. That was a big factor in the game.”
“We wanted to replicate last week’s efficiency against the Bulls, but we didn’t. We turned over far too much ball, especially in the second half when we were trying things from too far out.”
“We tried to play a bit harder than we needed to. Instead of sticking to our processes, we went chasing the game and used the wrong method.”
