Stormers hit self-destruct button on way to agonising defeat

Stormers boss John Dobson didn’t hold back following his team’s disappointing 38-34 loss to Ulster in Belfast on Friday night.

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The Stormers relinquished a commanding 17-point, as Ulster fought back to outscore the visitors six tries to four on their way to a riveting four-point triumph.

Springboks Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Evan Roos performed admirably for the Cape side, with the former contributing 14 points via the boot (four conversions and two drop goals) and the latter crossing for a try-double.

However, their efforts weren’t enough as the Stormers’ discipline disintegrated. Feinberg-Mngomezulu was yellow carded for a blatant shoulder-charge off the ball on the stroke of half-time and captain Neethling Fouche was then given a straight red card for a rugby incident soon after the restart.

The Stormers’ lack of control and discipline continued throughout the second half as they conceded multiple unforced penalties to let Ulster back into the contest and ultimately allow them to win the game.

DOBSON RUES TEAM’S LACK OF CONTROL AND DISCIPLINE

“Disappointing in the aspect that we thought we probably for large parts of the game were our own worst enemy,” the Dobson said. 

“The start we had, we wanted to put pressure on them, keep the crowd quiet, take them out of the game. And it was deadly quiet for 17 minutes.

“I don’t know if we got complacent, but we certainly got ill-disciplined and didn’t work as hard in defence as we should have done. To give away five entries to the 22… One was for a drop ball when Damian [Willemse] scooted it off his foot, and the other four were soft penalties.

“Then, of course, Sasha’s late tackle or trip or whatever it was, and that was really expensive for us. And then we saw the second half, you know… we get a red card. It was really ill-disciplined, unfortunately.”

Dobson singled out the Stormers’ their lack of composure in an error strewn second half as their undoing.

“I thought we were imperious at the start. I think it’s a game we should have won in terms of the quality of our team and our plans,” Dobson added. “But rugby must involve, and does involve, discipline. We’re really poor, so maybe we don’t deserve to win it if we’re that ill-disciplined.

“Generally, I thought in the swirling conditions, we handled lots of the game – the scrum, the kicking game, we had a reasonable territory picture,” the Stormers head coach explained.

“This team fights, [but] we shouldn’t have been in a position where we had to fight; if you’re 17-0 up and it could have been 24-0 if we took that pass inside. But double penalties, same as last week, were very expensive.

“I think when we had the ball in hand, we looked dominant, but just too ill-disciplined.”

WILL THE STORMERS MAKE THE URC PLAYOFFS?

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