John Dobson laments 'loose' Stormers in wake of Connacht loss

The Irish outfit recorded their sixth consecutive victory in the competition in wet and slippery Cape Town. The conditions weren't favourable to running rugby but the hosts were still eager to throw the ball around, to their detriment.

In the final play of the match with the Stormers needing a try to win, a loose pass was intercepted, resulting in the match-winning moment for the visitors and summing up the afternoon for the Cape Town franchise.

"We were loose throughout," admitted Dobson to the press afterwards.

"There were a couple of patches in the first half that we spoke about where we shuffled it around [too much]. And secondly, there was some amazing stuff out there in the second half.

"We had their maul on the ropes, and at one instance we had a quick throw in to Warrick [Gelant], but then Damian [Willemse] threw a forward pass, Connacht got the scrum and ended up scoring.

"I thought we were very loose. We said at halftime, let's be more direct and limit the passing [on attack]. But we kept shovelling [the ball] back repeatedly and conceded a penalty for sealing off.

"It felt at times we needed to invent to beat them, when in reality the template was there to do it; we saw it with our mauling getting on top.

"We had the last scrum, I know it's their ball. We had a great [replacement] tight five, and we didn't move them a centimetre in a scrum we needed to win to get two [log] points and we didn't do that, so Connacht did well."

Adding to the disappointment was the fact that the Stormers walked away with zero log points from the match. Given they were heavy favourites to walk away with the full complement of five, it's a bitter pill to swallow.

Dobson admitted it puts them in an awkward place with three matches left. Wanting to top the table to secure home advantage, they are four points adrift of Glasgow Warriors, who they host next week. But then the men in blue and white face Ulster and Cardiff in a ticky trip north - where points log points are difficult to come by - to finish the league phase.

"We now have to win all three to get where we want to be, but that's much easier said than done," he added.

"Glasgow and then two 4G [pitch matches] away against two teams competing for the top eight. We've put ourselves in a bit of a position now."