Leighton Koopman
Stormers head coach John Dobson could only apologise after his side delivered their poorest performance in the last three years in the United Rugby Championship (URC) at DHL Stadium on Saturday.
It was a display that lacked patience with the ball, accuracy and experience, and eventually ended up with the Ospreys walking away with a gritty 27-21 win.
The Stormers now face an uphill battle to secure a top-four spot, and have to build momentum from scratch –and this against a hurting Leinster side. They were thrashed by the Lions in Johannesburg and will head to Cape Town seeking vengeance.
There is another late-night kick-off (7.05pm) this weekend, and Saturday’s chilly autumn conditions played into the hands of the Ospreys. It will most likely suit Leinster too, who struggled in the highveld sun.
Dobson was almost at a loss for words after his side’s uncharacteristic display.
The Stormers are fairly accurate with the hot potato rugby they normally dish up, but they forced the situation one too many times against the Ospreys. And the Welshmen were ready to pounce on mistakes and inaccuracies.
“Unquestionably,” Dobson responded when asked if it was the poorest his side has been in the history of the URC.
“Firstly, we knew the Ospreys were going to be tough. They’ve done some remarkable things this season with a small squad.
“Credit to them, we knew they had fight. In terms of our performance, just the loosest, and I am really sorry about that. I can only apologise, it was poor.”
Dobson said while it is in their DNA to play expansive rugby and give the ball air as much as possible to put their skilful players in space, on Saturday they pushed the envelope when things were not on. It boils down to not earning the right to play their attacking rugby by doing the hard yards first.
If you have tight forwards looking for the spectacular offload off the ground almost more than the backs, that’s asking for trouble.
“We have this thing about being the Stormers and who we are (and how they play), but this was taking it to the extreme,” Dobson added.
“Before the game and half-time we spoke about this. We had two tight forwards passing the ball to each other on the tryline in the first half. We were as loose as could be.
“It is a concern and frustration. We coughed up 16 balls, I think.
“The key thing is that we have to get the go-forward ball down the middle of the field and that is where we went wrong. Our message was clear, dent them first, run hard lines and it will open up the sides.
“|We are proud of who we are, but that was too loose.”
The Stormers made a significant amount of changes, and Dobson said maybe it was a mistake, but he had to give players like hookers JJ Kotze and Scarra Ntubeni, and locks Gary Porter and Adre Smith a run to at least get game time before a possible play-off match.
“We gotta be good enough to beat the Ospreys at home even if we make 10 changes. That is part of the project here and maybe it’s a wake-up call for us.”
They are not out of the running for a top-four place on the URC log, but every game of the last four is a must-win, starting this weekend with Leinster.
If the Stormers lose again, they could fall out of the top eight entirely and then their two tour games could make or break their season.