2255693452
Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson was bitterly disappointed with the way his team’s impressive unbeaten start to the season came to a humbling end with a 61-10 Champions Cup thrashing at the hands of struggling Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop on Sunday.
It had been an unprecedented start to the season for the Stormers, with them brilliantly winning all 10 matches in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and Champions Cup, up until this past weekend, only to produce a disastrous performance in London.
Even though Harlequins have been in dreadful form this season and were under immense pressure heading into the match, they were still slight favourites against a weakened Stormers team fielding four debutants in their match 23.
Carnage
But no one expected the carnage that was to follow as the hosts ran in five first half tries for a 33-0 lead at the break, before powering away for the massive bonus point win, which dealt the Stormers arguably their worst ever loss under Dobson.
“In terms of the process and outcome, it was a desperately disappointing performance,” admitted Dobson.
“Even though we left some players in Cape Town, I still thought we had a team that would compete better and get a point out of the game at least. We didn’t really come close. So that is disappointing. We (have) had some good results on the road this year.
“However, Harlequins clicked and they were desperate. But that is not an excuse. We were beaten at the breakdown, and defensively, we were not up to our standard. We probably also did not stick to our plan of what we wanted to do on the attack.”
Home playoff
After starting the competition with two strong wins, the Stormers were expected to secure a home playoff, but the defeat, without a losing bonus point, has now opened the door for other teams to sneak ahead of them and knock them out.
Leinster top their pool on 14 points, followed by Harlequins on 11 and the Stormers on nine, and if they suffer a bonus point defeat to Leicester Tigers (five points) in their final pool match at home on Saturday, and if La Rochelle also win, they could be knocked out of the Champions Cup.
However the past weekend’s result is most likely just a blip on what has been a superb season for the Stormers so far, and back on home turf in Cape Town, and with a full strength team, they will probably get right back to winning ways against Leicester.
They will also hope that La Rochelle does them a favour and beats Harlequins in France, which would give the Stormers a chance to move back ahead of them on the log and secure a home round of 16 playoff.
About the Author
