Dobson finds positives ahead of Lions clash

The Stormers are far from downcast as they prepare to travel to Ellis Park for their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against the Lions on Saturday.

Their 16-game unbeaten run was snapped in Cardiff last weekend so, added to the draw in the preceding match, there may have been cause for gloom this week.

Though they failed to win the past two matches they were still able to harvest nine log points in their three matches on tour, which should serve them well later in the campaign.

Coach John Dobson was sanguine after their three-match tour of Europe, saying he was pleased with the squad’s development on their travels.

They did not go full throttle on tour as they rested some of their marquee players after the Springboks’ exertions in the Rugby Championship.

It was an opportunity for Dobson to run the rule over some of the emerging talent in his group. He may have to do the same at Ellis Park this weekend in the absence of Bok-bound Damian Willemse, Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe, Joseph Dweba, Salmaan Moerat, Deon Fourie and Herschel Jantjies.

He spread the workload on tour by using 34 players across the three matches.

“It is one of the reasons we blooded so many guys on this tour, we knew what was coming up. So, we have got a team for Joburg who have all played for the Stormers this year.

“In terms of building capacity, I am very happy. We have to get used to winning at about 70% to 80% strength, we are not going to be at 100% very often.

“We deliberately tried to expose more players and guys like Suleiman [Hartzenberg] and Sacha [Mngomezulu] would have learnt a lot,” he explained.

They would have learnt a lot about how to roll with the punches and how to adapt to the referee’s interpretations.

“We lost to a Cardiff team that played really well and it meant a lot to them,” said Dobson.

“Me talking about my very real and substantial frustrations with referees is going to sound like a poor loser, which I don’t want to come across. It means a lot to them and they did really well.

“There is certainly a lot of stuff we will be reviewing and be in contact with authorities about. It wasn’t the reason we lost.”

Last weekend's referee, Mike Adamson, also presided over the semifinal the Stormers won against Ulster in June, and on that occasion the official did not cover himself in glory either.

“I presume you could see how frustrated Marvin [Orie] was getting out there,” Dobson said about the lock seeking clarification from Adamson. “It is something we will work on again this week.”