Much more to come from Stormers, Dobson warns

Worryingly for his team’s rivals, Stormers coach John Dobson says his squad are still not playing to their full potential despite a win on the road against a dangerous Lions outfit on Saturday.

The champions had to come from behind to subdue a tenacious Lions side in an entertaining showdown at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

Dobson was full of praise for the members of his squad who have been included in the Springboks’ European tour.

“There is a massively good feeling among everybody at our franchise,” he said.

“We saw it in the captain’s run too. Everybody is just so pleased for the guys that got selected [for SA].

“That’s part of the game, that team spirit.

“All’s well that ends well is probably a good summation of our performance against the Lions.

“A lot of the processes were poor.

“It was probably our worst defensive performance to date, I felt, in terms of giving yards, not rolling away.

“We looked absolutely disjointed.

“Giving away 11 penalties in the first half illustrated how awful our discipline was and the line-outs were poor throughout.

“But we do have the ability to score tries.

“There are definitely workons for all of us.

“I thought one of our faults today — in a long list of faults — was we got sucked into that distance kicking where sometimes it was just one chase.

“All we had to do was make that pass to play that Stormers rugby because that’s our plan, to counter, and I felt we didn’t do that, we were poor at that.

“We do have that ability to score so-called easy tries from anywhere, but I actually think we butchered one or two.”

Dobson was delighted his Springbok hopefuls kept their minds fully focused on their task at hand for the Stormers.

He did not want a repeat of the 2018 Currie Cup final where his Western Province troops fell to the Sharks after the announcement of a Bok squad.

“You’d remember the national team departed the night after that final and we had quite a few Bok hopefuls getting the nod like Sergeal Petersen, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, JD Schickerling and Ruhan Nel,” Dobson said.

“The guys were on that plane in their heads when the game started.

“Of course, you understand it because if you’re making the Springbok team, the emotions will be all over the place,” he said.

“But for someone like Manie Libbok to produce a performance like this one [against the Lions] was brilliant.

“The worst thing that could happen to him was to get injured and that could’ve played on his mind. It’s human nature.

“Yet I was so pleased with the performance he delivered and the same with the others.”

Disappointed Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen lamented that his team was unable to take advantage of their lead.

“It was yin and yang,” he said.