SAD NEWS FOR STORMER: HE IS BACK......

The DHL Stormers haven’t faced many situations during the Vodacom United Rugby Championship era that were as desperate as the one they would have been in had they lost to Leinster at the weekend.

A second consecutive defeat at their home ground of the DHL Stadium (actually it would have been three if you factor in La Rochelle) would have left them leaving for their two-match URC tour fighting for their place in next season’s Investec Champions Cup. On top of that, with the Stormers not boasting a great record overseas, it would have plunged them into a potential confidence crisis, and at just the wrong time.

The Stormers went on tour in November and lost all four games, but at least that was at the start of the season, when there was enough time to rectify poor performance and bounce back. This is something the Cape team did quite well until last week’s unexpected home defeat to the Ospreys which has made it an uphill battle for the Stormers to match the previous two seasons by clinching a top-four place and a home playoff.

This time around, there is no margin for error, at least if the Stormers hope to still challenge for the top four. A Championship Cup place seems more secure given that the other teams in the logjam between fifth and 11th are all playing each other over the remaining three rounds.

“The previous tour was at the start of the season and we knew we would have an opportunity to rectify things when we came home,” said Dobson after his team’s 42-12 win over Leinster.

“It is different now, there is no room for error, as the loss to the Ospreys knocked us properly. We are now under massive pressure from a points situation. The devastation of that result against Ospreys was that we could have finished that weekend two points behind the fourth-placed Bulls and strongly in the running for a home playoff. That’s pretty unrecoverable now. Whereas we might have been in a situation where we could look at the game against Connacht in Galway and think it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we lost, now it’s a must-win tour.”