Stormers boss John Dobson was clearly fuming after his team’s United Rugby Championship victory over Connacht in Cape Town.

Los Pumas winger Santi Cordero raced over the line for Connacht in the final knockings of the match which would have given fly-half Jack Carty the opportunity to win the game with the conversion attempt.

However, before Carty could line up the match-winner, the try was ruled out due to an obstruction and despite coming away with the 34-29 win, Dobson was seething.

John Dobson fumes

“We are not going to go far in this tournament if we defend like that,” he told SuperSport after the match.

“We lost Deon Fourie so we had actually had eight backs and they still opened us up like that.

“Look it was a clear obstruction but they opened us up at will and I thought we’d lost the game and honestly, I thought we deserved to.”

The Stormers‘ defence is run by assistant coach Norman Laker, who is widely regarded as one of the best in the business.

Dobson was clearly not happy with the way the players implemented Laker’s system, dubbing the performance as one of the worst he has seen in a long time.

He added that if that continues in the coming weeks then the Stormers may as well just play their remaining regular season matches and pack it up.

“We are a team that prides ourselves on our defence but I think that’s the worst defensive performance in years,” he continued.

“We have got to be able to exit properly after we score, that was appalling,. Connacht are the best-attacking team in the competition statistically at the moment but that doesn’t account for what we did there, giving the extra man, slow off the line, lack of tackle fights.

“It’s going to be an interesting changeroom now because either we change now or we just go play three more home games and that’s going to be it [their season].”

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“F***ing shocking”

Next up for the Stormers is a visit from Benetton, who defeated the Lions 42-31 in Johannesburg in the earlier Saturday kick-off. Dobson believes that if his side defend against the Italians like they did against Connacht, then Benetton will rack up an even bigger win.

“Using this performance, we lose by the same score the Lions did if not more,” he added.

“Maybe it’s a wake-up that we needed. It’s cliched but we’ve just lacked a bit of our normal defence. The pressure that we usually create, we didn’t create, we didn’t put them under any pressure when they had the ball,” he said.

“In fact, we felt on the back foot and nervous. That’s not the culture of the Stormers, so I don’t know how you change that in one week, so I’ll start with a very serious chat now in the changeroom.”

After concluding his chat with Jean de Villiers, who conducted the interview, Dobson was seen walking off camera saying to the Springboks legend “F***ing shocking hey” in reference to his team’s performance.

The Stormers play their remaining three fixtures in the URC at home with a clash with the Dragons following the meeting with Benetton.

Their final game of the 2024/25 regular season is against Cardiff who defeated Ospreys 36-19 in their Judgment Day fixture this weekend courtesy of a Gabriel Hamer-Webb hat-trick.

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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/fuming-john-dobsons-foul-mouthed-verdict-caught-on-tv-after-brutal-review-of-shocking-stormers