Plan comes together for DHL Stormers
Director of Rugby John Dobson was thrilled with the way his team delivered on the gameplan in their bonus-point Vodacom United Rugby Championship win in Italy on Saturday.
The DHL Stormers scored four tries en route to a commanding 36-5 victory against Zebre Parma at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi. Playmaker Jurie Matthee kicked 14 points, while speedsters Leolin Zas, Suleiman Hartzenberg and Angelo Davids all crossed the whitewash.
It was the first win of the Vodacom URC season for the DHL Stormers, showing good composure and tactical nous to bag maximum points ahead of their final match on tour against Edinburgh this week.
Key takeaways from Zebre Parma result
“It was always going to be a scoreboard-pressure building of the innings. We must give credit to Zebre. Their defence and physicality may not have come across on TV but it was like a wall in front of us. We just had to build the scoreboard pressure to make them chase the game. With 15 minutes to go, we were where we wanted to be, building the innings. There were one or two forced passes when we realised a fourth try was on the table and decided to push for it. But we really wanted to bank a win. In terms of what we wanted, this was exactly the performance. We put them under the pump physically. It took a lot to break that defensive wall down. Also, the message came up from the players that the ball was slippery because of the conditions, so we struggled to get distance passes. But we are happy.”
Tactical improvement
“Last week against the Ospreys we had a good plan, but you don’t always cover everything. I don’t think as coaches we emphasised our exiting and exit strategies as much as we could have. This week, we saw how Zebre played against Munster and they were exceptional. We had some good plans around double-tackles to slow them down, so they lost their attacking shape. We did almost exactly what we planned to do. We knew that if we got into a Harlem Globetrotters shoot-out, with their talent, we would be in trouble. So it went according to plan. This week, tactically, we were spot on. Up against an Italian international front row, we got a bit of dominance earlier than I thought in the scrum. The first penalty went against us, which was tough, but the rest were spot on. To come up here and get back-to-back 100 percent line-outs is exceptional. We also showed some life in our mauling. We got Zebre chasing the game and got the fourth try.”
Jurie Matthee’s goal-kicking
“Never underestimate the scoreboard pressure. This was a Zebre team full of hope, physical and well organised. So that scoreboard pressure was important for us. Jurie played well. It worked out well because we knew they were a ball-in-hand team and we wanted them to force it a bit and we could profit from that.”
Edinburgh challenge
“Our goal from the tour is to get two wins. We used our free hit last week. Edinburgh will be a very, very different prospect up at the Hive Stadium. It’s going to be a difficult game, but we’ve got confidence from Saturday’s result. We want to get two wins. Had we gone there without a win, we would have lacked a bit of confidence. Now. it’s everything to play for, for us. I feel like we are in a good space. The other good thing is even though we planned for Steven Kitshoff and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to be with us and they couldn’t, it looks like we haven’t picked up any injuries. We are a healthy and happy squad and we will put everything into getting a second win on tour next weekend.”
