Dobson: Squad a level up

Stormers coach John Dobson says his team is better than the one that lost their last two Super Rugby matches before the coronavirus shutdown in March.

After going down 33-14 to the Blues and then losing 24-14 to the Sharks, Dobson admits that the coronavirus lockdown gave his team time to do some much-needed introspection.

And with the Lions lying in wait in Saturday’s friendly at Loftus – where the Bulls and Sharks will also clash – Dobson says: “When you have lost two in a row you go really deep, maybe too deep in some ways.

“We looked at everything, from our culture, training methods, times, recovery systems, territory game, everything has been pulled apart and we are very excited about the changes we have made.

“The way we have trained, other than set-piece because we have only started that lately, my view is that we would beat us from March.

“The way we are training now is considerably superior to how we were training in March in terms of skill and intensity.

“I have got no doubt whatsoever that we are going to be a better team than we were before...

“We have worked probably the most on our kicking and territory game, our kicking system, getting our chase right and upskilling the likes of Herschel [Jantjies], Damian [Willemse], Godlen [Masimla]. That has probably been the biggest part of our game change.”

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