John Dobson reveals how ‘feedback’ on Stormers v All Blacks clash could help Springboks with Greatest Rivalry Test preparations
All Blacks scrum-half Cortez Ratima kicks for touch and Stormers boss John Dobson looks on (inset).
After initially exchanging information with the Springboks ahead of Friday’s clash with the All Blacks, the Stormers will now provide feedback to the world champions on the men in black.
That was the word from Stormers director of rugby John Dobson after the All Blacks clinched a hard-fought victory over his troops in their tour opener at the DHL Stadium.
Stormers and Springboks had fruitful discussions
Dobson revealed that the discussions with Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus and his coaching staff were fruitful and forms part of a developing alignment between South Africa’s United Rugby Championship teams and the world champions in the build-up to Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry’s four-Test series with the All Blacks.
The Springboks and All Blacks will face off in three matches in South Africa – in Johannesburg (twice) and Cape Town, before Baltimore hosts the fourth and final Test on September 12.
Dobson opened up on initial discussions between the Stormers and Springboks’ coaching camps and revealed that a follow-up conversation is now set to take place.
“We (the Stormers and Bok coaches) had a chat last week, just normal alignment,” he told reporters after Friday’s clash with the All Blacks. “I think it’s quite clever and I’ll probably give feedback (on the match).
“There will be, but nothing formal.
“But we are South African teams and I think they’d be interested to know how we experienced the clash, I know they will.
“So we’ll give some feedback on what we found. I don’t think that’s unusual, but yeah, we shared some thoughts during the week and it actually was really useful.
“It’s a nice alignment between us and the Springboks.
‘They said thanks for it’
“They pointed out a few things, ‘Have you thought about this, watched this?’ And we said we’ve noticed this, picked this something up, and they said thanks for it.
“That’s cool, it feels like we haven’t done that before, so that (discussion) was nice, yeah.”
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The Stormers delivered an impressive performance against the All Blacks in their tour opener as the sides were level at 14-14 before the visitors finished with a flurry to clinch a 38-21 triumph.
Dobson believes the information which the Springboks provided to the Stormers was beneficial and helped with their preparations for Friday’s clash.
“They gave us two really good things, one of which came to fruition on Friday,” he added.
The All Blacks are set to face the Sharks in their second Greatest Rivalry tour match in Durban on Tuesday.
