Dobson breaks down areas that need improving for Stormers

Having had a few weeks off has given Stormers director of rugby John Dobson fresh perspective ahead of their home run to the conclusion of the league stages of the United Rugby Championships.

The Stormers are very much in quarterfinal contention but they are aiming as high as they can in their remaining matches against Connacht, Benetton, Scarlets and Cardiff in Cape Town.

Being bundled out of the EPCR competition was perhaps what was needed to re-energise their challenge in the URC.

“I think we were quite keen not to play in the Challenge Cup given all those injuries we had,” said the forthright Dobson. “It was actually very useful for us. We would have loved to still be in the Champions Cup but being in the Challenge Cup for another week?”

It gave Dobson time to reflect on where his team, who are placed 10th on the points table, need to improve if they are going to join the realm of contenders.

The break gave him and his coaching team time to drill down into the team's statistics. He said it revealed a few shortfalls that need urgent addressing.

“We were one of the top teams with our line speed a few years ago. We were winning the ball back within three phases through pressure. We had Ruhan Nel who used to do that well. Defensively we haven't been as impressive as we've been known for. We are now down to fifth or sixth in that area.

“We are second or third with 22m entries but with the lowest conversion rate. We will force a pass or do a grubber or lose our pick-and-go shape.”

Dobson said while his team does not allow the opposition to run their way into their 22, the Stormers hand that opportunity to them on a plate. “Teams don't play themselves into our 22. We give away penalties in the middle of the field.

“Other teams' conversion rate is so much better than ours. Those are three things we need to rectify,” said Dobson, differentiating must-find remedies from the things they need to work on.

He took a quick trip to serial Champions Cup and Top 14 winners Toulouse with assistant coach Dawie Snyman, which proved eye-opening. It brought fresh perspective to the way his team should perhaps approach the ruck.

“Toulouse don't want to ruck; they want to play an offload game — but we knew that.

“Getting Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu], Damian [Willemse] and Suleiman [Hartzenberg] back, we can produce fast ball and create more chaos. We have the fastest breakdown in the URC — but if we can avoid breakdowns it will be better for us.”

To what degree those improvements and refinements will be implemented will be revealed on Saturday when they take on Connacht.

Dobson reminded that lock JD Schickerling has joined Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Willemse back from injury — but added flyhalf Manie Libbok is yet to recover from his knock, while flank Ben-Jason Dixon is out for the rest of the campaign.

“We are missing a traditional big, ball-carrying physical Pieter-Steph [du Toit] type of flank,” he lamented about the loss of the loose forward.