Dobson: We were our own worst enemy

03/29/2025 04:56 AM

John Dobson rues the Stormers' ill-discipline on Friday in Belfast, although it's "mission accomplished" as they return home for a crucial run to the Vodacom URC playoffs.  

The Stormers squandered a commanding lead in a 38-34 defeat by Ulster at Kingspan Stadium in round 14 of the competition. The visitors raced to a 17-0 lead inside seven minutes, but Ulster clawed their way back to 17-17 at half time.

And with captain Neethling Fouche seeing red early in the second half, after Sacha Feinberg Mngomezulu was sent to the naughty chair for a cynical challenge before the break, the Stormers played the final 35 minutes with 14 men. 

Reflecting post-match, Dobson admitted his troops had only themselves to blame. "Disappointing in the aspect that we thought we probably for large parts of the game were our own worst enemy," the Stormers boss said. 

"The start we had, we wanted to put pressure on them, keep the crowd quiet, take them out of the game. And it was deadly quiet for 17 minutes.

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"I don’t know if we got complacent, but we certainly got ill-disciplined and didn’t work as hard in defence as we should have done. To give away five entries to the 22… One was for a drop ball when Damian [Willemse] scooted it off his foot, and the other four were soft penalties.

"Then, of course, Sasha’s late tackle or trip or whatever it was, and that was really expensive for us. And then we saw the second half, you know… we get a red card. It was really ill-disciplined, unfortunately."

Despite the numerical disadvantage, the Stormers traded two tries with Ulster in a frantic second stanza, but their lack of composure in key moments proved costly.

"I thought we were imperious at the start. I think it’s a game we should have won in terms of the quality of our team and our plans," Dobson added. "But rugby must involve, and does involve, discipline. We’re really poor, so maybe we don’t deserve to win it if we’re that ill-disciplined.

"Generally, I thought in the swirling conditions, we handled lots of the game – the scrum, the kicking game, we had a reasonable territory picture.

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"This team fights, [but] we shouldn’t have been in a position where we had to fight; if you’re 17-0 up and it could have been 24-0 if we took that pass inside. But double penalties, same as last week, were very expensive.

"I think when we had the ball in hand, we looked dominant, but just too ill-disciplined."

The Stormers, currently seventh on the log, secured seven points from their two-week tour, including a bonus-point win over the Scarlets and two losing points in Belfast. Following a two-week break they host Connacht at Cape Town Stadium on 19 April, followed by Benetton, Dragons and Cardiff.

"I think seven points from the tour, we would have taken eight, we probably would have signed for seven or six before we left," Dobson said. "So in that sense, mission accomplished, coming into the four home games.

"It does mean there’s nothing negotiable in the home games. We’re very much alive and as I say, if you said we’re going to get seven on our away tour against teams that are very close to us on the log, probably you would have taken it.

"But still, I can’t help feeling we beat ourselves a little bit tonight."

Photo: Ben McShane/Gallo Images

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