{"id":52762,"date":"2026-03-15T07:03:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T07:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52762"},"modified":"2026-03-15T07:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T07:03:32","slug":"stormers-john-dobson-most-important-win-bulls-loftus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/15\/stormers-john-dobson-most-important-win-bulls-loftus\/","title":{"rendered":"Stormers boss Dobson says it was his most important win at Loftus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>John Dobson said it helped that nobody gave the Stormers a chance against the Bulls before their 32-19 win in Pretoria.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Stormers director of rugby John Dobson said his side\u2019s bonus-point win over the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday was the most meaningful of of his wins there since he took the reins in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The teams have clashed 12 times in the United Rugby Championship in that time, five at the Pretoria union\u2019s home ground.<\/p>\n<p>The Stormers have now won four of those, the latest (score 32-19) ending their three-match losing streak while the Bulls also saw the end of their four-game winning run.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-nobody-gave-us-a-chance\">\u2018Nobody gave us a chance\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The Stormers boss admitted that the hype around the resurgent Bulls, and disregard of the Stormers helped them in the build-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody gave us a chance,\u201d Dobson said. \u201cSometimes that\u2019s good luck, especially when you come to a place like this. It did help that people had written us off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said that the fact that the Bulls were as strong as ever made the win all the more meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere we\u2019ve come from, a lot of doubt and questions, you think of the noise around some of our players\u2026 we were under a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur team was unbeaten and there was a lot of hype and then \u2018where are we going, what is wrong with the Stormers\u2019, getting defined by some of the okes on social media\u2026 it was probably our most important win, and I also think to be honest, our most dominant performance up here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was big win for us because it\u2019s not an average Bulls team. It\u2019s not a Bulls team in crisis. It\u2019s a Bulls team with momentum and real class, well led, well organised. A big win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coach praised his team for defending against the Bulls when down to 13 men, while dominating scrums and lineouts.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-stormers-revert-to-the-basics-against-bulls\">Stormers revert to the basics against Bulls<\/h3>\n<p>But the driving force behind the improved performance was a return to the Stormers identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s easy to get loose. We\u2019ve got so much attacking ability, it\u2019s easy to fall into the trap that you want to create stuff,\u201d said captain Ruhan Nel. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought the way we stuck to the plan and continued to put pressure on them even when down to 13 guys on the field. It\u2019s a true testament to our character and the hard work we\u2019ve been putting in the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to get a little bit back to our identity. Strong set-piece, kick well, defend well, do the basics well and that Stormers rugby just naturally come for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Stormers #boss #Dobson #important #win #Loftus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Dobson said it helped that nobody gave the Stormers a chance against the Bulls before their 32-19 win in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52764,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52762\/revisions\/52764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}