Stormers won’t be changing their approach – Dobson
IF it ain’t broke ... That’s the approach the Stormers are taking when it comes to the playing style that helped them win the inaugural United Rugby Championship last season.
The Stormers, with a well-known monster of a pack and set-piece prowess, didn’t rely on those strengths alone en route to the final against the Bulls at Cape Town Stadium.
In fact, they were one of the most entertaining teams to watch on attack, and the statistics backed it up.
They were fifth in terms of points scored, fourth with tries scored, second when it came to offloads, metres gained and defenders beaten, and first in clean breaks.
John Dobson’s team will get their title defence underway against Irish side Connacht at the Danie Craven Stadium on Saturday (2.30pm kickoff), and when asked if they were going to change their approach, the Stormers coach said: “The short answer is ‘no’. What we found last year, whether that was serendipitous or by design, was a game model that suits us. We are going to be absolutely, rigidly disciplined about sticking to our game and how we play,” Dobson assured yesterday.
“There will be no changes in regards to that. If you look at the personnel that we have brought in, guys like Alapati (Leiua) and (Clayton) Blommetjies ...
“Blommes is a counter attacking No 15 like Warrick (Gelant; who has left to join Racing 92). He has a good kicking game and high ball skills. Alapati is a gamebreaking centre, which is very much like we get with Damian (Willemse) or got with Rikus (Pretorius), but he can also cover at 13.
“There are one or two areas we could evolve in, like contestable kicks. We have lost some big personnel but as I say, we are not changing. We are who we are and that’s how we are going to play.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that the defending champions don’t have their boxes they would like to tick.
“We have put across that the team needs to get better in some areas,” Dobson continued, as he made it clear that complacency or arrogance won’t be a by product of their remarkable success in the first URC season.
“We have also put last season into context. It was great for the people of Cape Town. It was really important to us. But we must also acknowledge that there were some really tight games. The Bulls produced a fantastic performance in beating Leinster. Would we have won in Dublin ... probably not.
“We had a lot of games going down to the hooter. It’s credit to them and their character, how they fought, but nobody can suggest for one season that we cruised through it or we have reason for backslapping.
“We understand that and we understand we have to get better. As the cliche goes, we have a target on our back so we have to get better. That’s how we train and hopefully that’s what we will show on Saturday.”