‘Car crash after car crash’: Stormers coach Dobson laments Loftus ‘horror show’

Stormers coach John Dobson labelled his team's performance a “horror show” after their 40-22 United Rugby Championship (URC) defeat to the Bulls at a packed out Loftus on Saturday.

While the defeat will put a favourable draw out of reach in the knockout stages for the Stormers, it was the manner in which it unfolded that amplified the coach's disappointment.

Dobson was bemused by a performance that left him a little stumped for answers.

“I don't know where that came from. It was remarkably poor,” sighed Dobson.

“I've just never seen this. It was car crash after car crash.”

The hard, cold reality the Stormers will have to come to square up to is the Bulls beat them to the punch upfront. While the visitors, albeit operating under intense pressure, were guilty of poor ball retention, while the hosts were more clinical, remained true to the basics and unleashed physicality the Stormers would rarely have encountered this season.

The Stormers were wasteful and hamstrung by imprecision when they had the Bulls on the retreat.

“Every time we'd claw our way back into the game we'd do something silly,” said the coach in relation to their six second-half 5m entries from their goal line that came to nothing.

“An uncharacteristically ill-disciplined, almost lazy performance from us.”

Dobson fingered his team's faltering line-outs, conceding the Bulls contest that area feverishly.

He felt there were not enough scrums in the game for his team to get a potential foothold but admitted that would have been more difficult with tight head prop Wilco Louw restored to the Bulls line-up.

Overall it was a faltering performance and the coach put it in distinct terms. “It was a horror show but it was due to their pressure,” Dobson conceded.

He did, though, find some solace in the moments where the Stormers were able to dazzle.

“When we needed to turn it on and get back into the match we could do it. I thought Warrick [Gelant] was magnificent, Manie [Libbok] was good, Damian [Willemse] was good.

“There were signs in the second half that give me hope. I don't think we've opened up teams like that for a long time.”

Dobson believes, had Evan Roos' lunge for the try line in the second half been allowed to stand, it might have provided the match with a distinct momentum swing.

The Bulls seized momentum and finished strong leaving the Stormers with much to mull.

The Stormers head to Northampton next week for their March 9 exhibition clash against Northampton Saints, which Dobson believes will be good for his fringe players. “It will be a good way to reset after the horrors of today.”

As is generally the case, Dobson believes the healing properties of time will help the Stormers over the derby defeat. Their next URC engagement is a home match on March 23. They host Ulster a week later before La Rochelle again set sail for Cape Town for a crunch clash in the Champions Cup.

Before engaging in those battles the Stormers have much to fix. “This was probably a good wake up call for us,” said Dobson.