Dobson: It was a step up for Stormers

12/15/2024 03:20 AM

John Dobson and Salmaan Moerat lamented the DHL Stormers' defensive effort against Harlequins, as the injury-hit Cape outfit dug deep in Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup clash.

Crippled by injuries to several frontline players, the Stormers went down 53-16 at Welford Road in a match that saw French referee Ludovic Cayre dish out four yellow cards – three of them shown to the tourists in the second half.

Looking to bounce back after an opening round loss to Toulon, the Stormers were outscored eight tries to one in London, with two matches remaining of the pool stages of the Champions Cup.

"This was a poor performance by us. Two yellow cards last week, three this week," Dobson said post-match. "We pride ourselves on our defence, we think we've got one of the best in world club rugby, but Harlequins undid us. A very disappointing performance.

"The team we put out there wasn't good enough, given the depth of our squad. I think if we came here full noise – Damian Willemse was available, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, [Frans] Malherbe and [Steven] Kitshoff, two of the world's best props… It's just poor timing.

“What we do know about this tournament, and we were reminded of it tonight, is it's a step up – it's another world. I think we as South Africans are so used to just seeing 'club' and don't realise it's another level.

"Can't really judge us by the last few years; we've got teams into the quarter-finals and then we got hammered. But we're keen to get there."

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Dobson turned to young talent for Saturday's match, and the director of rugby praised the efforts of debutants Vernon Matongo and Jonathan Roche along with Sazi Sandi, Connor Evans and Louw Nel.

The latter duo, however, are injury concerns – Evans is nursing an ankle problem while Nel pulled a hamstring.

"I thought the new guys who haven't played much for the Stormers… Vernon Matongo was superb, Louw Nel was really good," Dobson said.

"Johnny Roche when he came on debut… those guys took their opportunities really well. Connor was good, Sazi was much better. It was a curious game, I don’t think any of those guys played particularly poorly but we got well beaten.

"We would've liked to have competed more and for the scoreline to be better, and I think we could've if a couple things had gone our way, but we've got to look at ourselves."

Skipper Moerat added: "For those first 30 minutes we really did well and were in the game, but it was just lapses in concentration. And our basic one-on-on tackling let them back into the game. At the end of the day it's going to be very hard chasing a game like that.

“And in the second half, lapses in concentration again. Then the momentum is with them, and the 50-50 calls will go their way as well. It was really tough.

"But those first 30 minutes is really the potential this group has, and if we can pull it together for longer periods we'll be good for it."

Photo: Alex Davidson/Getty Images

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