John Dobson issues apology to Leinster for costly Stormers indiscretion in ‘dogfight’ URC semi-final defeat
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson (inset) and back-row Ruan Ackermann.
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson has apologised to Leinster for Ruan Ackermann’s red card offence during his team’s United Rugby Championship (URC) semi-final defeat at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Leinster clinched a hard-fought 20-11 victory, setting up a repeat of last year’s URC final against the Bulls, who sealed a narrow 22-21 triumph over Glasgow Warriors.
The big talking point after Saturday’s Aviva Stadium encounter was replacement back-row Ackermann‘s tucked-shoulder cleanout to the head of Ronan Kelleher in the 69th minute, for which he was initially yellow-carded, but was upgraded to red later on.
At the time of that dismissal, the match was on a knife-edge with Leinster holding a slender 13-11 lead.
Received another yellow card shortly afterwards
Shortly afterwards, the Stormers were reduced to 13 men after replacement lock Salmaan Moerat was also yellow-carded for a breakdown offence in the build-up to Jamison Gibson-Park’s match-winning try.
However, it was Ackermann’s indiscretion that Dobson felt cost his team a spot in the final, as they were in the ascendancy up to that stage, and he issued a heartfelt apology after the match.
“We probably should apologise for that first send-off, that is what we have to get rid of in rugby,” he said. “A tucked shoulder to the head, then you won’t have players jackalling at the breakdown.
“My only thing to Leo (Cullen, Leinster head coach) was to say sorry about that. I had no issue with that call. Up until then, we could see some cracks starting to appear physically in Leinster, and that ill-discipline was costly.
“A big moment was when we got into their 22, which we didn’t do often. If we converted there, we were in a reasonably good position. We could see they looked a little bit tired. That second yellow card I didn’t quite understand.”
Strong fightback from the Stormers
Leinster raced into a 13-0 lead courtesy of an early converted try from Rieko Ioane and two Sam Prendergast penalties, but the Stormers clawed their way back via an Adre Smith five-pointer and a Jurie Matthee penalty, which meant the match was evenly poised at half-time with the home side holding a 13-8 lead.
The second half was a slugfest, and although Leolin Zas was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knockdown early in the second half, the visitors managed to narrow the gap to two points when Matthee succeeded with his second penalty.
The score would remain 13-11 for most of the second half, with the sides’ defensive efforts cancelling each other out until Ackermann’s indiscretion changed the complexion of the match and Leinster eventually secured the result via Gibson-Park’s try in the 70th minute.
“Up until minute 68, we dared to dream,” Dobson added.
“We defended well. Yes, we had personnel issues, and I don’t want to make it sound like an excuse. We weren’t going to come here and out-attack Leinster; we wanted to make it a dogfight, give them set-piece pressure and defend well. I think that was working.
“The thing with Leinster is that if you give them more than 10 line-outs in your half, they get their rhythm from that and it leads to tries. A couple of those line-outs came from our poor discipline.”
