Dobson battling with same problem he faced in November

When you listen to DHL Stormers coach John Dobson speak after a game sometimes it is hard to escape wanting to ask yourself a question: “Haven’t I heard this before?”

That’s not a slight on Dobson, who is one of the most entertaining and forthcoming coaches in the business. But after the Ulster game, which the Cape side won 13-7 with a late try and then penalty, it was a repeat of what he said in November, when the Stormers completed a four match Vodacom United Rugby Championship tour of the northern hemisphere without a victory because “We were too loose”.

All of which could add up to “We are not learning”, except that with the exception of the game against the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus a month ago, where the Stormers were actually the stronger team in the last 50 minutes but had too much catching up to do and butchered scoring chances, the Stormers are now winning.

Dobson will be the first to admit that the pressure created by that losing tour is still being felt by his team in terms of the pressure they are playing under in their quest for a top four spot. Add the points that would have been banked from the two games they should definitely have won had they just been a bit smarter, against Benetton and Cardiff, and the Stormers could now be second on the log.

And yet Ulster was a game that could so easily have gone the other way. It just required the visitors to perhaps get one more score during their period of massive dominance of possession in the first half and they could have won the game comfortably. That they didn’t was a tribute to the Stormers’ tenacity, but Dobson felt that once his team did gain the ascendancy in the possession and territorial battle after halftime, they should have been smarter.

“For me we were far too loose. We are making entry after entry but coming away with no return through us being too loose, trying to throw that extra offload instead of holding onto the ball,” said Dobson.

“It’s been three games in a row now that we have butchered so many chances. But I don’t want to tell these guys to not be who they are. So it is a delicate balancing act, but they need to understand that some of that was not acceptable in terms of trying to get a win which is the most important thing.”

That’s what sounded like a re-run of the audio from after the Benetton game in particular, and it is something his team will need to heed when the massive challenge of European champions LaRochelle come to town for this weekend’s round of 16 Investec Champions Cup tie. At least the experience of having to withstand the pressure imposed by Ulster in a massive first half effort should hold them in good stead for their clash with the French behemoths.

“That first half performance of Ulster’s was superb,” Dobson acknowledged. “We just didn’t have a plan (against it). We made so many tackles, they got the ball so well, we lost all our energy and we couldn’t play. It was a lesson for us. The second half we just wasted so many try scoring opportunities.

“Our understanding at halftime was we couldn’t keep making so many tackles. So we got some ball, we got a few penalties and as soon as we had the ball they had to make the tackles, and that was the change in the game.”

The closeness of the game and the fact his team got across the line is something that Stormers skipper Salmaan Moerat is using as inspiration as his team heads into the sharp end of the season in both the URC and the Champions Cup.

“That was a proper ‘Test’ match. I think a lot of credit needs to go to Ulster,” said Moerat.

“They put us under a lot of pressure in that first half. Somehow we managed to work our way back into the game early in the second half and then it could have gone either way. That is really a sign of a championship side. To win even when everything is against you and things aren’t going your way.

“So we are really pleased with the win. We will have a look at our performance and see where we can improve, but we will enjoy this,” he said.