DHL Stormers coach John Dobson won’t make the mistake of touching the money just yet but the current position on the overall Vodacom United Rugby Championship vindicates his view that his team has defied the critics.
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With three games to go in the league phase, the Stormers are fifth, but tied with fourth placed Munster on log points. Munster play Ulster in Belfast in their next game, which is a tough ask, so if the Stormers beat third placed Glasgow Warriors that same weekend, they could be as high as third on the overall log after the next round. In fact, if the Stormers beat Glasgow and Munster shock Ulster, the same scenario would apply - the Stormers third.
There are just three points separating second place from fifth so the position the Stormers are in is certainly a far cry from what was expected from them at the start of the competition. While he is mindful of what is to come next as Glasgow and Leinster head to Cape Town, he agrees that he would have been more than happy to buy his team’s current position had it been offered to him back in September. There is also the significant fact that along with the Sharks, the Stormers completed the derby phase of competition with the best record, with the loss to the Lions in December their only blemish.
“I am very pleased with how we are standing, for a team that was largely written off. I don’t think we are highly thought of by our opposition … poorly coached and a poor group of players,” said Dobson with the more than just a small hint of the type of sarcasm that his rival coach in Saturday’s derby has become renowned for.
WHITE PROVIDES EXTRA MOTIVATION
Whether or not that statement was directed at Jake White, the Bulls’ director of rugby, only Dobson will know. But there is no denying that White’s verbals, particularly from an earlier part of South African rugby’s comeback from lockdown when the Stormers were in a much worse space than they are now, and he was at it again on the eve of Saturday’s game and even in defeat he referenced the Stormers/WP lack of trophies, serve as additional motivation to the Stormers players when they play the Bulls.
Perhaps the two teams will meet again sometime in the play-offs, but for now the Stormers are rightly elated to have pulled off the double against the Bulls in the URC season - with Saturday’s tactically on point win against the ensuring there was no revenge for the Pretoria team’s unexpected loss at Loftus in January.
It was that Loftus game in particular that infused the Stormers with the self-belief they are playing with now, and the past few months, starting with the derby phase and then extending into the matches against overseas teams, have emphatically extinguished any debate about Dobson’s suitability to be Stormers coach.
COACHING GROUP HAS EXCELLED
I subscribed myself to the theory at one point that there wasn’t enough experience in the Stormers coaching group, so let it be said that if that is the case, it certainly doesn’t show. Given that the Stormers (Western Province) are a poor third to the Bulls and Sharks when it comes to financial clout because of their lack of equity partner and the mismanagement of their union’s former president, Dobson’s coaching group has excelled itself.
It’s hard to remember a game where the Stormers coaches got it wrong tactically and their recruitment has been more pinpoint and directed than some other franchises. While some detractors may still carp about their narrow win over Ulster and describe it as lucky, there was no denying how unlucky they were in not winning against Connacht in Galway before that. Those two games cancel each other out.
CLOSE TO ACHIEVING PRINCIPLE OBJECTIVE
But the season isn’t over, and Dobson isn’t crowing from the rooftops just yet.
“We have to play Glasgow next and then we play Leinster. Those are both teams that are currently ahead of us, so it is going to be quite a challenge. Glasgow aren’t playing the Champions Cup and they didn’t play today (Saturday) so they have lots of time to prepare for our game and will be up for it.”
While both opponents will be challenging though, Dobson does agree his team is now on the cusp of achieving his principle objective, the one he has been working on for a year, which is qualification for next year’s Champions Cup.
“What we set ourselves as a goal, and it was a reasonable goal, was to qualify for the playoffs,” said Dobson.
“Winning the (South African) Shield isn’t critical. What is critical is to be in the top seven and be sure of Champions Cup next year, which is a realistic goal given where we are now. To beat the Bulls home and away, a team as well-coached and well-drilled as they are for our little team, it’s a great achievement. As I said last week, to be in striking distance of the Bulls and Sharks is great.”
Again, note the sarcasm, the “little team” reference being directed at the hype that drove the early season narrative as the Sharks and Bulls started out the URC era with strong equity partners while the Stormers’ mother union went into administration.
DON’T WANT ANYTHING RIDING ON SCARLETS GAME
The Stormers play the Scarlets in Llanelli in their last game, and as he was addressing the post-match press conference at DHL Stadium on Saturday, Scarlets were busy annihilating Cardiff in Cardiff. Dobson says he doesn’t want to leave it to chance and have to go to Wales with Champions Cup qualification riding on the result.
“The Glasgow game will be a tough game, but if we win that, we should be home and hosed. We won’t want to go to Scarlets needing a win,” he said.
Dobson said he was pleased there would be a two week break now, not so much because of the physical condition of his players, which he says is good, but because of how deep they’ve had to dig emotionally in some of the recent games.
“This team has put a lot in emotionally, so from that point of view they may need a break,” he agreed.