John Dobson apologises for Stormers’ ‘worst performance’ in loss to Ospreys

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Stormers head coach John Dobson apologised profusely for his side’s 27-21 defeat to the Ospreys in Cape Town on Saturday, describing it as their “worst performance”.

Dobson’s charges’ hopes of securing a home play-off suffered a severe dent as the Welsh region dominated the encounter for long periods and eventually secured a bonus-point win after outscoring their hosts by four tries to three.

The home side also received a bonus point after being awarded a penalty try in the game’s dying moments.

Wrong tactics used

However, they delivered a horrendous display in which their tactics proved costly as they opted to run the ball on most occasions, especially when they were pinned inside their own territory.

And Dobson did not hold back when giving his verdict in the post-match press conference.

“It was unquestionably our worst performance,” he said. “We lost in the first URC to the Lions here, but we were utterly dominant in terms of possession in that game.

“We knew that Ospreys would fight. They have done some remarkable stuff this season with a small squad. Credit to them, we knew they would fight.

“In terms of our performance, it was so loose. I am really sorry about that. I can only apologise. It was poor.”

The visitors came with a plan in which they delivered a brilliant defensive performance and did remarkably well to counter the Stormers‘ lineout maul – especially close to the Ospreys‘ try-line – and that frustrated their hosts.

That led to the Stormers forcing some plays which ultimately led to disastrous consequences as two of the Ospreys’ tries came after a desperate offload inside their 22 and a cross-field kick which went horribly wrong.

Stormers dealt hammer home playoff race blow as Ospreys stun John Dobson’s charges

“That was taking it to the extreme,” Dobson admitted. “We spoke about it before the game and at half time. We had a situation with two tight forwards passing to each other on our try-line in the first half. We were loose as can be. It’s a concern. It’s frustrating. We coughed up 16 balls today.

“The key thing for us is to get go-forward down the middle of the field. That was what went wrong today. Our message today before the game couldn’t have been clearer, dent them first, run direct and hard lines and then we will open up the sides, because we have magic playmakers.

“We are proud of who we are, but that was too loose and very poor. I really am sorry.”

The result means the Stormers have dropped one position on the URC table and are currently in sixth place, level on 40 points with the Ospreys with the Welsh outfit one spot below them due to an inferior points difference.

Dobson made several alterations to his run-on side after they suffered a one-point loss to La Rochelle in their Champions Cup Round-of-16 encounter a fortnight ago.

‘A big wake up call’

“We have to be good enough to beat Ospreys at home, even if we make 10 changes,” he said. “That’s part of the project here. That’s a big wake up call for us tonight.

“When they scored to go 24-14 up, there were still 17 minutes left. I still thought we were going to win this game. For some reason, we changed our style of rugby and forced it.

“I will give Ospreys credit, we didn’t move them in the scrum, except right at the end, and we couldn’t move them in the maul. That is well done to them.”