Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson didn’t conceal his frustrations with the excessive error depend and lack of self-discipline of their 34-38 loss to Ulster in a United Rugby Championship Spherical 14 encounter in Belfast on the weekend.
The Stormers left Ravenhill with two priceless bonus factors, nonetheless firmly within the play-off race.
Nevertheless, the excessive turnover and penalty depend have been two points that featured prominently in Dobson’s post-match evaluate.
The Stormers have been lowered to 14 males for a lot of the second half, with captain Neethling Fouche proven a purple card for a harmful deal with.
He’ll face a disciplinary listening to and a possible ban, which can affect the beginning of the Stormers’ residence run – once they face Connacht (April 19), Benetton (April 26), Dragons (Might 10) and Cardiff (Might 16) in Cape City within the final 4 rounds.
The Connacht sport, coming after a two-week European interlude, now takes on extra significance.
One other loss towards an equally determined Irish province may very well be very pricey within the ultimate push for the highest eight.
(LISTEN as a bitterly disillusioned Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson expresses his frustrations with the dearth of self-discipline of their pricey URC loss to Ulster….)
“For big components of the sport we have been our personal worst enemies,” Dobson mentioned of the loss in Belfast on the weekend.
After an excellent begin – which noticed the Cape City franchise race right into a 17-0 lead contained in the opening 10 minutes – it began to go pear-shaped.
Star playmaker Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was yellow-carded on the stroke of half-time for a cynical off-the-ball incident and within the forty fourth minute captain Neethling Fouche was red-carded for a harmful deal with.
“We actually acquired ill-disciplined,” the Stormers boss mentioned, including: “We additionally didn’t work as arduous on defence as we should always have finished.
“There have been some mushy penalties – like [not being behind the] final toes and the late deal with or journey by Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu].
“That was very costly for us,” he mentioned of a interval wherein Ulster scored 31 factors to a solitary drop-goal by the guests.
“It was a sport we should always have received when it comes to the standard of our crew and the plans we had.
“The sport entails self-discipline and perhaps – based mostly on our ill-discipline – we didn’t need to win.”
Dobson felt the dearth of self-discipline has grow to be a recurring theme for the Cape City outfit.
Nevertheless, with seven factors from the 2 matches on tour, they return residence with their future nonetheless firmly in their very own fingers.
“Mission completed,” Dobson mentioned of the win-loss highway journey.
“There’s nothing negotiable within the residence video games, however we’re very a lot alive.
“Can’t assist feeling we beat ourselves,” he mentioned of the loss to Ulster.
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