John Dobson says the Stormers’ hopes of finishing in the Vodacom URC final four are all but gone after Saturday’s derby defeat, but they won’t give up on playoff qualification.

A Stormers side missing several key players went toe-to-toe with the Vodacom Bulls at a packed Cape Town Stadium, only for a late missed conversion to deny the hosts victory. 

Speaking in a pitchside interview with SuperSport, Dobson acknowledged the Bulls’ dominance at scrum time while applauding his players’ effort in a 33-32 defeat to their traditional rivals from Pretoria.

“The truth is we got hit in the scrums in the first half, which put us under enormous pressure and we lost territory,” the Stormers director of rugby said.

“We fought back well but I can’t say much more. The last 10, 15 minutes, a couple of holding penalties and inaccuracies at the breakdown – they’re a really good jackalling team..

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“But I must give credit to their scrum, that put us under a lot of pressure throughout this game, and it took a lot of fight to get up off the canvas. Probably could’ve won it.”

The Stormers, who were without stars such as Manie Libbok, JD Schickerling and Ruhan Nel, still managed to score five tries, with Evan Roos, Warrick Gelant, and Ben-Jason Dixon all crossing in the second half. But it wasn’t enough to counter a Bulls outfit led by Willie le Roux’s playmaking and Cameron Hanekom’s standout performance at No 8.

Dobson emphasised the challenge of competing without so many frontline players but took pride in how his team responded.

“If you’d tell me right now to pick a team on paper that didn’t play today — I’m not trying to make excuses but you gotta have some perspective here – Damian Willemse [at fullback or inside centre], [Seabelo] Senatla on one wing, Suleiman Hartzenberg on the other wing,” he said.

“You can put Ruhan Nel at 13, you put Sacha [Feinberg-Mngomezulu] at 12, Manie at 10, you can put [lock] JD Schickerling in the team, Steven Kitshoff, Neethling Fouche … you pick this team with what we had, then we can give a lot of credit to Stormers rugby today, that’s my view.”

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While the Bulls climbed to within two points of second place on the URC table, the Stormers remain in 12th, leaving Dobson to salvage their 2024-25 campaign.

“Today was probably the end of that top-four dream, we’ve just got to fight our way into the top eight,” he said. “At the end of the day we’re very disappointed, no matter what the injury situation is.”

The Stormers face the Lions next Saturday, and then a Bulls rematch on 1 March before a two-week overseas tour and a run of four matches in Cape Town.

“We’ve got two tough ones, Joburg and Pretoria, possibly win on tour, and then we’ve got a lekker home run like we did two years ago,” Dobson added.

“This team will rise, they’ll always find their way back. It’s going to be tough … but this reserve [team] has shown it’s got a bit of fight.”

Photo: Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images

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