Champions Cup: John Dobson bemoans ‘flat’ Stormers performance in loss to Exeter Chiefs
Stormers head coach John Dobson looks on.
Stormers head coach John Dobson bemoaned his side’s “flat” performance during their 42-17 Champions Cup quarter-final defeat against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Saturday.
The men from the Cape made a sluggish start against the Chiefs, who raced into a 21-0 lead at half-time before another converted try from Sam Simmonds early in the second half left the visitors with a mountain to climb.
“In all the work we did on Exeter prepping for that game, I haven’t seen them play as well as they did in that first 20 minutes for a while,” said Dobson.
“I thought they were superb. They literally blew us away. We were entirely flat.
“The way they attacked, their passing, their physicality… I just felt we were on the ropes from minute one. We were very flat but credit to Exeter for the way they played.”
Always playing catch-up to Exeter
Although the Stormers struck back with tries from Damian Willemse, Suleiman Hartzenberg and Marvin Orie, the visitors were always playing catch-up and they could not haul in the Chiefs, who eventually outscored them by six tries to three.
Dobson identified their slow start as the reason for their downfall but said Exeter were full value for their victory.
“In the first half, every single thing went against us. Everything seemed to go wrong and everything seemed to fall their way. But they deserve credit for the intensity they came out with,” Dobson said.
“I think we showed a bit of fight in the second half and opened them up pretty nicely and were unlucky with a couple of things.
“Maybe if the obstruction try (Ruhan Nel) had stood, we could have had an outside sniff. But the reality is that it was too late.”
