John Dobson sketched out a rotation-driven Stormers blueprint for their Round 17 URC trip to Ulster, with the South African franchise's playoff hopes resting on a tighthead reset and a bench loaded for "optionality" in the back row.
"It says we have to have capacity. We have to have Sazi (Sandi)," Dobson said in his pre-match presser, signalling the recall of the Springbok prop after four games out. "He's four games he hasn't played. So that's more just give Sazi the opportunity. We can't get to the playoffs if something's wrong with Zack or Neethling and Sazi has just hasn't played. They're so good — they're so tight, the roster around the tighthead props."
Captain Deon Fourie's positional flexibility is again the centrepiece of the bench. "We just like the gamble in that JJ's not on the bench but Deon's well-trained now at hooker, and it gives us a lot of optionality later in the game," Dobson explained. "You could end up in a position where Deon's at hooker and Paul's on the field. Something we always thought of. Or they're both on the flank. Andre Esterhuizen did do the same thing in Toulon, where Andre got through 80 minutes, but Deon's obviously much more trained for that now. So it gives us lots of optionality around the bench and the forward pack on the bench."
Fourie said the mindset was to ride the work the side did against Glasgow. "All happy. The last game against Glasgow was a good game. The challenge for us is just to build on that performance, especially coming at the business end of the tournament now. You want to progress from game to game and be better every game. So that's the focus for the team at the moment — just doing the stuff well again like we did against Ulster."
Pressed on stacking loose forwards, Dobson said the bench balance was deliberate. "It is useful. We never want to leave either Deon or Paul really out. Paul has to come in and allows Deon to cover hooker later in the game. So that's pretty obvious selection. We also didn't really want to have Paul and Deon at flank as much as I'd like to play them together at some stage. If there's an early injury, both as the flanks would put our line-out under a bit of pressure as good as Deon jumps in there in a line-out."
He continued: "And the foraging and speed and our cheaper speed is a nice coming option for us later in the game. So that was the thinking around the benches. Every time Paul or Deon's come off the bench they've made a difference in the 20 or 30 minutes it's been."
Dobson also flagged a fresh-locks contingency. "If we wanted to get two fresh locks on because Andre and Ruben are playing a lot, BJ can move in and Connor can come on and Achille can come on the bench. So I think it gives our pack — especially with the ability of Deon to play hooker and six — a lot more sort of optionality."
Asked about Ulster's depleted backline missing big runners and a wing, but with Springbok seven Werner Kok now in the back-three mix, Dobson said the kicking battle is the obvious frontier. "We know how fast this is. Both sides of the ball you guys will have to be sharp and with that tactical kicking."
The Stormers travelled north and edged a tense URC contest at Kingspan less than 24 hours after this presser. The bench Dobson described — Fourie and de Wet rotating, Sandi cycling in at tighthead — duly disrupted Ulster's set piece in stretches and produced the matchday platforms he said he was banking on, leaving Cape Town's playoff push very much alive heading into the final fortnight of the regular season.
