DHL Stormers director of rugby John Dobson was a relieved man after his team got out of jail with a 34-29 win over Connacht but ultimately the five Vodacom United Rugby Championship log points they banked at the DHL Stadium came at a price.
It was a chaotic last 15 minutes of a game that was headlined by Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s try-scoring hattrick, with wing Ben Loader at one point operating as a flank, fullback Warrick Gelant in the sinbin for much of that time and the assurance that Dobson was hoping to get from having veteran Springbok Deon Fourie as an impact sub also not materialising.
No sooner had Fourie been called onto the field than he left it, and within minutes he was on crutches as he limped upon the touchline as the drama of a spirited and tenacious Connacht fightback enfolded on the field.
It didn’t look good for 38-year-old Fourie, and Dobson confirmed afterwards that it wasn’t, and given that he wouldn’t have that much time left in his career given his age, the flanker may well have played his last game of rugby if the worst fears are confirmed.
“Unfortunately it does look like a very serious injury. He hasn’t been for scans or x-rays yet, and until he does we can hope for the best, but it looks like a broken tibia,” said Dobson.
“We haven’t scanned or x-rayed him yet, but with that kind of injury you can be out for a long time. Keke Morabe was out for nearly a year with that injury.
"Keke suffered another injury like that in December, and we are expecting him to be out for another 10 months. You’d have to do the maths and realise we are probably at a crossroads (with Fourie if the worst case scenario is confirmed)."
FOURIE'S STRENGTH OF CHARACTER
Dobson added that he hoped that was not the case and mentioned Fourie’s strength of character and determination as a possible factor in ensuring that he doesn’t let Saturday’s sad ending to the game and probably the season for Fourie be the end of his career.
but Keke [Morabe] was out for close to a year with that.
“Often with those things, it depends on the nature of the break. You’ll remember last year after La Rochelle, he said, ‘I’m not finishing my career in a golf cart’. Knowing Deon, he’s not going to want to finish it like that. Let’s hope.”
Dobson felt his team were lucky to bank the five points that puts them into the top eight, actually level now with seventh placed Munster on points, and described his team’s defensive performance as the worst in several seasons.
“We are not happy, that was a very poor performance and we are not going to beat Benetton (the next game) if we play like that,” he said.
“In many ways it was the best and worst of the Stormers all wrapped into one game. Our attacking game was at times brilliant, but our defence was nowhere and we also again let ourselves down with indiscipline at times,” he said after a game where the Stormers were never headed but kept letting Connacht follow every try with one of their own.
Ultimately the Stormers had to rely on the TMO to save them when the visitors scored a try off the last move of the game but it was rightly disallowed because of obstruction.
“I suppose you could say it works out for us that we had this scare now as now there will be no illusions that our remaining three games will be easy. For months we’ve spoken about how much we were looking forward to this sequence of four home games, but today was a wakeup call and a reminder that none of these games are a gimme.”