John Dobson hailed the Stormers’ six-try URC win on Saturday in Cape Town as one built on set-piece dominance, the magic of returning Springboks and Hacjivah Dayimani.
Dayimani bagged a brace as the Stormers ended the Sharks’ unbeaten start to the season with a 39-22 victory at Cape Town Stadium.
Dobson’s charges crossed the whitewash five times after the break, having led 22-8 half-time, to avenge back-to-back URC defeats in the coastal derby last season.
A struggling lineout contributed to last week’s loss to Edinburgh in round two, and speaking post-match on Saturday, Dobson highlighted the improvement playing in front of more than 40,000 fans and wearing their black away kit for the first time this season.
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“It was a pretty compelling performance by us. I never thought we were in trouble. Credit to [assistant coach] Rito Hlungwani, [lock] JD Schickerling and the forwards,” the coach said. “[There was] the obvious fault correction from last week, but I thought physically and defensively we stood up.
“What I liked about our game, which I haven’t talked to [captain] Ruhan Nel about, is that when we did win the contestables and got into their half, we played some nice rugby.
“We sort of had a bit of a flow, which we hadn’t had on the tour. To me, without being arrogant, the process justified the outcome.”
Dobson had not expected the Stormers to have it “so easily” as they did against the Sharks pack, with Dayimani’s scores either side of the interval courtesy of a maul and pushover from the scrum, respectively.
“If you look at the personnel, I think that’s why it’s a nice reminder. It’s a collective. It’s a team thing,” he noted.
“I didn’t expect us to get five or six scrum penalties. We’ve got to try and reproduce that.”
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Dobson named 11 Boks in his match 23, and noted Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Damian Willemse and Cobus Reinach all made a difference on their return.
“Sacha and Damian, you can just see it,” the boss said. “Their backfield rotation and understanding of where each other are, except for the one where they both went dribbling … It’s magic.
“We obviously had a hard time in Edinburgh, but we had a guy [Yaqeen Ahmed] who was writing matric exams this time last year at 10, in for one of the world’s best playmakers. It’s going to make a difference. But they really did inject a lot.”
Dobson also reckons Dayimani has “metamorphosised” since his comeback from Racing 92, adding that the No 8 now needed to sustain this form for the whole season and build a “proper innings”.
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
