Stormers will ‘learn a lot’ from gutsy Ulster win, says coach Dobson

Stormers coach John Dobson hailed the character of his players after they held on for a breathless 23-20 win over Ulster in their United Rugby Championship match over the weekend.

The Stormers have enjoyed a strong resurgence of late and absolutely dominated their last two sets of opposition, Zebre and Cardiff, at Cape Town Stadium, but coming up against one of the competition favourites almost derailed them.

It took a debateable decision from the ref and a massive scrum effort in the closing moments of the match to preserve their winning run, after it looked as if Ulster may just knick it at the death.

“It was courageous. There were elements of our game which are important for our growth that came out, like the scrum plan. We started with Kitsie (Steven Kitshoff) and Frans (Malherbe) and the replacements probably bailed us out,” explained Dobson.

“But that was the plan. We had Frans for 40 minutes and Kitsie for an hour. Then we had two almost international-level props in Brok (Harris) and Neethling (Fouche) coming on. It was the plan to get some reward there, but not necessarily win the game that way.”

After a typical Stormers start to the game where their backs wove their magic to run in two early tries and take a 14-0 lead after just seven minutes, the hosts then showed their grit and determination by defending like demons in the second half to keep Ulster out.

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“In the last couple of weeks, we have been known for the flash and everything. But we were up against one of the best club teams in Europe, so we had to show some courage and find other ways to win it,” said Dobson.

“We can’t say we deserved it, we were on the ropes. But we stuck in the fight and we will learn a lot from this.”

One of the biggest things the Stormers must take out of the game and improve on is how to handle a good kicking game, as Ulster flyhalf Billy Burns, scrumhalf John Cooney and their fellow backs kept the home side pinned in their own half for large sections of the match.

“They really played well, especially the way they trapped us with those contestable kicks. We were under the pump with that kicking game,” Dobson admitted.

“Our discipline also went. I don’t know whether those two issues are related. We gave only four penalties away against Cardiff, seven or eight against Zebre and today we were in the mid-teens. I think it was because we were under pressure so much.

“I don’t think we played poorly. We were just up against a really good team who had a really good plan and they put us under a lot of pressure, but we withstood that pressure.”