John Dobson hails Stormers' 'underrated' rookie after Bulls victory

The Cape Town-based side broke a four-match losing streak with the victory, and Matthee contributed 14 points through four penalties and a conversion. Despite challenging weather, including heavy rainfall, Matthee not only displayed excellent goal-kicking but also impressed with his overall game management.

The 24-year-old has had minimal game time since his Stormers debut in 2023, but with key Springboks players Manie Libbok and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu sidelined by injury, Dobson was compelled to start Matthee in the number 10 role.

Dobson expressed satisfaction with his team's resilience in the face of a hostile Loftus Versfeld crowd and was particularly pleased with Matthee's performance.

"It's obviously a special place to win. From the first kick-off, the way we counter-rucked, we just fought and fought and fought for every scrap, every contact point, everything like that," he said.

"So that was probably the most pleasing thing.

"And then if I was to single somebody out, I'd say Jurie Matthee. He's an unheralded guy and in those conditions, he did a really, really good job. But the most pleasing thing was our fight, you know, we didn't go away.

"I still thought we did a bit (too much) with the ball, and the first half was a bit frustrating. I thought we could have kicked earlier. And we were trying to sort of move it around a bit, which was one of the messages at half-time.

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"That sounds really simplistic, kick quicker, kick sooner. I thought we were poor like that in the first half. But then in the second half, we were really a bit more direct with the kicking."

Though the Bulls had the advantage in the scrums, Dobson noted his team's improvement as the match went on, especially after being dominated in the scrums during their previous encounter in Cape Town.

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