A frustrated John Dobson says the injury withdrawal of flyhalf Manie Libbok left a 6-2 bench exposed as the Stormers experienced one of their “worst days in the office” in Dublin on Saturday.

Dobson: Bench gamble backfired in Dublin

The Stormers were within touching distance of Leinster with two minutes to go in the first half of the Vodacom URC clash at the Aviva Stadium when Libbok left the contest with a knee injury.

Dobson had banked on Libbok completing the game, loading his bench with six forwards and backline cover from scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies and centre Wandisile Simelane. The injury consequently forced a reshuffle with Warrick Gelant shifting from fullback into the void.

Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan almost immediately scored the first of two tries to make it 15-7 at the break and Leinster powered to a 36-12 victory in the second half.

“You’ve got a world-class flyhalf and you’re 10-7 down away [from home], and he goes off,” Dobson said after the match. “I must take responsibility for not having another flyhalf on the bench. We went for a 6-2 bench, and that gamble backfired badly for us. It was a big loss.

“The physios were prodding away. It’s a knee injury; Manie couldn’t run, but I’ve got no clue yet.”

Libbok’s exit was the second such disruption to the Stormers’ plans in the first half as lock JD Schickerling had been forced off earlier in the contest with a shoulder injury.

“It’s something to do with his AC joint,” Dobson said. “I don’t know how serious it is.”

The Stormers director of rugby gave Leinster full credit for their five-tries-to-two victory, which extended the Irish giants’ current streak to 10 wins this season, singling out Leinster’s superiority at the breakdown while acknowledging the Stormers’ struggles at the lineout.

“[Breakdown superiority] is what we wanted to do to them, and they did it very well to us,” he said. “The final score was 36-12, so it’s kind of hard for us to point fingers in any direction other than they beat us really well at that area.

“Our frustration probably started early on with the lineout, with us losing too many of our own ball. It was the same case in Paris last week. Once you’re losing lineouts and giving away penalties, they can get through their phase play in the right areas of the field.”

Leinster’s ascendancy at the breakdown gave them control of the tempo, ramping up the pressure on the Stormers on both sides of the ball.

“I thought they were excellent with their breakdown and we were poor in slowing them down. The whole thing cascaded thanks to the pressure they put on us,” Dobson said.

“It’s a lesson for us, how they played with as many players they had in Portugal [for Ireland’s Six Nations preparations]. That they could put on a performance like that is credit to them… putting us under pressure, and the pressure was everywhere.”

The Stormers return to action on 8 February, when they must regroup for a north-south derby against the Vodacom Bulls in Cape Town. Saturday’s defeat increases the importance for the Stormers to deliver in the upcoming local derbies, with playoff hopes hanging in the balance.

“We’re going to be under pressure in the local derbies, we need to make it up there,” he said. “But I don’t think for one second we’re a bad side; we’re a side that’s coming good.

“It was just one of our worst days in the office in a couple of years, to be honest. It’s a good learning for us as an organisation, that you can take X amount of players out on national duty and still field a team of that quality.”