This is not how we wanted to say goodbye

John Dobson rues the “worst performance in a couple of years” as the Stormers bid farewell to several stalwarts in the aftermath of the Vodacom URC quarter-final defeat in Glasgow on Friday night. 

Defending champions, Glasgow Warriors beat the Stormers 36-18 at Scotstoun Stadium, eliminating the Cape outfit from the URC playoffs in the quarter-finals for consecutive seasons.

Joseph Dweba, Herschel Jantjies and Ben Loader have now played their last game for the Stormers before leaving the franchise, along with Paul de Wet and Dave Ewers, while Manie Libbok has previously been linked with a sabbatical overseas.

“It’s actually sitting pretty tough in the throat, emotionally,” director of rugby Dobson told reporters in a post-match teleconference. “We didn’t think we were not going to be playing next week, that was our plan.

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“Paul de Wet was URC one, and [Leolin Zas] didn’t get on the field. Obviously Joe, Manie and Hersch are big players for us that we wanted to fade out into the night… Dave Ewers also didn’t get on the field.

“We’ll go have a chat now when we get back to the hotel because that changing room is so sad now. It’s like an American Civil War tent. The guys are really, really distraught and it’s not the way I want to say goodbye to these guys who, as I say, have put a lot in.

“We really, honestly, in our heart of hearts believed we’d be playing next week.

“All those names … Ben Loader too … have been really good Stormers, so not how we wanted to say goodbye to them like this.”

The Stormers took a 3-0 lead at Scotstoun through Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s penalty before captain Salmaan Moerat’s HIA departure and Seabelo Senatla’s yellow card shifted momentum toward Glasgow.

The Warriors capitalised ruthlessly, with Rory Darge and Kyle Rowe crossing before half time. Despite Senatla’s response upon returning from the sin-bin, Henco Venter’s try gave Glasgow a 19-13 interval advantage.

The second half began promisingly when Senatla completed his brace but Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s missed conversion proved costly as Glasgow pulled away decisively.

Rowe’s second try and George Horne’s stunning individual effort established a commanding 33-18 lead, effectively ending the contest before Horne’s penalty sealed the comprehensive victory.

“I couldn’t sit in the changing room now and complain about the efforts,” Dobson said. “I think after the last try, the last half an hour… we were just playing very, very poorly. They put us under a lot of pressure.

“We weren’t getting any yardage in our carry and a plethora of mistakes and massive credit to Glasgow for their defence. And then their ability with ball in hand. If we’re going to kick as inaccurately as we kicked tonight with their attack, they punished us.

“We’ve been going 90% lineouts the last four games, suddenly dropped in the 70s, dropped down to giving away 17 line breaks, dropped down to 65% tackle completion, which is credit to Glasgow, how they attacked.

“But we kept our worst performance probably in a couple of years for a knockout game, which is really disappointing.”

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Despite the disappointment, Dobson tried to find positives from both the match and 2024-25 campaign, during which the Stormers lost several key players such as Steven Kitshoff, Frans Malherbe and Deon Fourie to injury.

“Our scrum and Seabelo were the two silver linings to a very dark cloud, and some of the youngsters coming through… youngsters like Paul [de Villiers] will be better for the experience; in terms of broadening our depth, we’ve had a good season,” he said.

“What worried me today, I felt like we didn’t win the gainline; we can fix the lineout or the kicking plan, it just worried me a little bit that we didn’t dominate the collisions as much as I’d like to have. But to fade off like we did tonight is disappointing.

“I think we weren’t far off getting ourselves into fourth [on the log], despite everything that happened over the season. And the growth in terms of the squad… Our scrum culture is superb. That gives me a lot of reason for optimism.”

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