CAPE TOWN - The fact that John Dobson feels that the Bulls’ playing style was “pretty much what we were expecting” makes Saturday’s 39-6 Super Rugby Unlocked defeat even more concerning for the Stormers.
With halfbacks like Ivan van Zyl and Morne Steyn, one could have anticipated that the Bulls would resort to a more conservative approach in the north-south derby compared to what they dished up in a 41-14 victory over the Sharks a week earlier.
In fact, Bulls coach Jake White said beforehand that his team would “play like the olden days! We are going to play against six forwards (from the Stormers on the bench), and we are going to make sure when they bring their fresh pack on, we are going to keep kicking up-and-unders”.
While it was said in jest at the time, it is a game plan that could have been employed for such a high-pressure match, especially due to the powerful World Cup-winning front row of Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi and Frans Malherbe.
Instead, the Bulls looked to prevent the Stormers from gaining the ascendancy in the scrums by holding on to possession and utilising strike-runners such as Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cornal Hendricks and Stedman Gans, and when they did kick, they often kept the ball in play with little chips into space and up-and-unders.
So, as the Stormers say they expected that from the Bulls, why did they opt to kick most of their own ball away? Halfbacks Herschel Jantjies and Damian Willemse, as well as fullback Warrick Gelant, made injudicious use of the boot with a strong wind at their backs, and it played right into the hands of the home team.
Asked if he felt whether the Cape side got their tactics wrong, Dobson said: “The wind was swirling. We did win the toss and wanted to go from left to right to try and kick with the wind – but one went dead and one went directly out with Warrick.
“So ja, maybe tactically we got it wrong, but we wanted to play in their half. They kicked those big contestables back into the swirling wind, which we messed up.
“I suppose in retrospect, we could’ve run with it more in the first half, but if you look at the source of those tries that came from minute 23 to 40, they are from us messing up contestables. The way they took advantage of it was superb.”
The visitors were somewhat “saved by the bell”, with a thunderstorm and lightning ending the contest after 63 minutes, although Dobson took some solace from his team’s second-half performance, where they were able to create a few scoring opportunities in the Bulls’ 22.
He insisted that this was a proud Stormers team and that he would not blame the character of the players, but he mentioned that their body language was poor in the period before halftime when they conceded four tries in 13 minutes. “The guys are very disappointed, and I think we are all embarrassed – including myself.”
Dobson added that not having injured big names such as captain Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla and Sergeal Petersen was “quite a lot of our team out”.
But the sun did come up yesterday, and now the Stormers have to find their mojo for this Saturday’s clash against Griquas in Kimberley (4.30pm kickoff).
“This result for us feels devastating, but the talk in the change-room during the break (while waiting for the match to resume), the players were saying ‘This isn’t us. These are our plans for turning it around’,” Dobson said.
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