Stormers have to be better against Edinburgh – Dobson
· Citizen
Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson said they would have to be much better if they want to overcome a dangerous Edinburgh team who are in a must-win situation, when the teams meet in their United Rugby Championship (URC) encounter in Cape Town on Saturday.
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The Stormers were made to work incredibly hard by a tenacious Dragons team on Sunday, eventually fighting their way to a tight 29-21 bonus point win that solidified their spot in second place on the URC log.
They now come up against another team languishing in the bottom half of the log, in Edinburgh, and will thus be favourites, especially after they were thumped 54-17 by the Lions over the weekend.
But with the Scottish visitors knowing that a loss against the Cape side will likely end their slim hopes of a top eight finish to make the URC playoffs, they will be desperate to win, and will be expecting a few reinforcements back for the game.
“It will be a different Edinburgh this coming weekend, and we’ll have to be much better than we were (against Dragons).
“Edinburgh are in the last chance saloon, and obviously Pierre Schoeman and Duhan Van der Merwe and other guys (will be available), they’ll beef up this week,” explained Dobson. They’ll be tough this week.
“I think in their (Edinburgh’s) own mind, Ellis Park was an impossibility, so that puts this game down as a big one for them. It is a six-day turnaround for us. We know as a collective that we can and will be much better.”
Dragons win
Speaking about the Dragons win, Dobson said that they were unable to be as efficient as they were a week previously in their impressive win over the Bulls on the Highveld.
“We wanted to replicate last week’s efficiency (at Loftus), 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.”
A big boost to the Stormers has however been the very successful return from injury of veteran Deon Fourie, who in his second game back against the Dragons earned the man-of-the-match award.
“We just wanted to start Deon for a few games to manage him. But I actually think he’s better now than when he first came back from injury. He’s been sharp and really effective over the ball,” said a pleased Dobson.
The Stormers will now be eager to build some momentum with a strong performance against Edinburgh, as they follow up this weekend’s game with a trip to France to face Toulon in their Champions Cup last 16 clash.