Stormers coach John Dobson admitted that the team were very disappointed with their poor loss to Cardiff in their final United Rugby Championship (URC) pool match in Wales on Friday night, that ended up costing them second place on the log.
The hosts picked up a deserved 22-16 win to secure their place in the URC playoffs, but the Stormers’ slip-up allowed Leinster to leapfrog them into second after thrashing Ospreys 68-14 in their final pool game on Saturday.
The Stormers have an immediate chance to make things right, as they will now host Cardiff at the Cape Town Stadium in their quarterfinal match-up in two weeks.
Finishing third
But finishing third means they won’t host a semifinal, unless the Lions do the unthinkable and upset defending champions Leinster in their quarterfinal clash in Dublin.
Speaking about the result, Dobson explained parallels between their draw a week earlier against Ulster in Belfast, and the Cardiff result, with their inability to finish most worrying.
“That was a very disappointing performance. We have to give Cardiff a lot of credit, they were desperate. But I am sorry that their desperation meant more to them than our chance to host more playoffs in Cape Town,” said Dobson.
“I thought their defence was brilliant. Their attack was very good and put us under pressure defensively, and they were very clever.
“We had many areas of dominance and a lot of opportunities that we wasted, so it was similar to last week (against Ulster). Our failure to convert when we are five metres out was disappointing and the fact we didn’t have a behaviour change there is a problem for us.”
Disappointing tour
Despite a disappointing tour to finish the URC pool stage, where the Stormers could have won both matches, they will now have to bounce back on home soil and Dobson backed his charges to do just that.
“We are going to have to regroup. It’s our first overseas URC loss this year, and a very disappointing one at the wrong time,” said Dobson.
“But we know what’s in this group and we will regroup quickly. We have no serious injury concerns. We are just a very bruised team beaten by the better team on the night. We are hopefully going to be much better than this in the quarterfinal.”
Three SA teams will be in the URC knockouts, with the Lions confirming a first appearance in the playoffs and Champions Cup rugby for the first time, despite a 24-17 loss to Munster in Limerick.
This while the Bulls produced a strong finish to their pool stage, with a 45-19 win over Benetton to secure a home quarterfinal against Munster, which they will head into with plenty of confidence, with them on a five game winning run in the URC.
