Stormers coach John Dobson was satisfied to leave Parma with a full house of log points, but admitted his side weren’t at their best in their 31-13 victory over Zebre on Saturday night.
Reflecting on the performance, Dobson said his log-leaders drifted from the template that had served them so well at the back end of last season and early in the current campaign.
“We had a very strong template towards the back end of last season, start of this season. We maybe varied a bit too much this week. I hate using the term ‘overplayed’ but in some areas we probably pushed it a little bit when we actually wanted to be really direct. Not our best performance – we were a bit flat. I don’t know if it’s because of the time we played or the pressure that Zebre exerted – still wasn’t our best.”
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Despite a disjointed showing at times, the Stormers’ set-piece foundation once again proved decisive.
“What’s pleasing is our lineouts and maul is going well, our scrum won a few penalties but I felt those came a little bit later than it did in the previous games. We didn’t have it quite as easy at scrum time, but if you’re without Tuks [Ntuthuko Mchunu], Neethling [Fouché], Sazi [Sandi] and Frans [Malherbe] … I thought Zach Porthen was exceptional. So the set piece was nice, where we are on the log is nice. I thought our defence was really good. We never let them get on top of us.”
Dobson admits that the Stormers will need to find another gear when they head to Treviso next week to face Benetton, a side that has caused them problems in the past.
“We weren’t at our clinical best and we’ve got a huge battle ahead against Benetton. We haven’t won here nor have we played well here before, so we’ve got to lift ourselves for a real big battle in Treviso next week.”
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The Cape side’s last two results in Treviso were a 20-17 loss in 2023 and a 22-18 loss in 2021.
Photo: Chris Fairweather/Gallo Images
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