Stormers director of rugby John Dobson singled out rookie fly-half Jurie Matthee for special praise after his side clinched a morale-boosting victory over the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday.
The men from the Cape ended a four-match losing streak courtesy of a 19-16 triumph over the Bulls with Matthee finishing with a 14-point contribution courtesy of four penalties and a conversion.
The fixture was played in atrocious weather conditions, with heavy rain pelting down for long periods, but apart from solid goal-kicking, Matthee also impressed with his game management.
Limited game-time for Matthee
The 24-year-old has had limited game-time since making his debut for the Stormers in 2023 but with Springboks stars Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu currently sidelined due to injury, Dobson has been forced to start with Matthee in the number 10 jersey.
Dobson praised the fighting spirit displayed by his charges in front of an intimidating crowd at Loftus Versfeld and said he was delighted with Matthee’s performance.
“It’s obviously a special place to win. From the first kick-off, the way we counter-rucked, we just fought and fought and fought for every scrap, every contact point, everything like that,” he said.
“So that was probably the most pleasing thing.
“And then if I was to single somebody out, I’d say Jurie Matthee. He’s an unheralded guy and in those conditions, he did a really, really good job. But the most pleasing thing was our fight, you know, we didn’t go away.
“I still thought we did a bit (too much) with the ball, and the first half was a bit frustrating. I thought we could have kicked earlier. And we were trying to sort of move it around a bit, which was one of the messages at half-time.
‘We were really a bit more direct with the kicking’
“That sounds really simplistic, kick quicker, kick sooner. I thought we were poor like that in the first half. But then in the second half, we were really a bit more direct with the kicking.”
Although the Bulls held the upper hand in the scrums, Dobson feels his side were more competitive in that department as the match progressed.
He said he is happy with their improvement in the scrums after they were demolished in the set-piece battle when they faced the Bulls in the corresponding fixture in Cape Town last month.
“We had one or two scrums early where we looked promising (in Pretoria),” explained Dobson. “But they got us in the third or fourth scrum where they deserved the penalty.
“I couldn’t see what was happening on the far side of Wilco (Louw) and Ali (Vermaak) in the first half.
“There were two AR (assistant referee) calls which left us a little bit frustrated. They took our soul in Cape Town (at scrum time), I know the Clayton Blommetjies missed conversion is blamed (for the loss), but the damage was done in the scrums. So it was a big focus.
“They didn’t get that massive dominance they got in Cape Town, but they still got four or five penalties, which worries me a little bit.
“When you get destroyed in the scrum, you lose your energy. So, the huge thing this week was about absorbing that pressure and stopping their big carriers off nine. For some reason they didn’t get that going in the match.”
