Dobson has big plans for WP
Dobson said he did not have enough time to assert his playing style on the team ahead of this year's Currie Cup campaign where they finished runners-up after losing 32-24 to the Lions in last Saturday's Final.
With Eddie Jones in charge of the Stormers in next year's Super Rugby campaign it might be hard for Dobson to do so now, however he will be in charge of WP in the Currie Cup for the "next couple of years".
"We had a satisfactory campaign but there is still work I want do around the team culture," said Dobson.
"Before the Currie Cup we had a two-week gap and then we played [a warm-up] against the EP Kings which was a mistake in retrospect because you can't train, you can't do team building, you can't walk over a mountain and you can't spend time on tackle technique. You inherit a team that has just been knocked out of Super Rugby and they are tired.
"You just have no time to do your stuff and that was the biggest frustration. Because we were under pressure we reverted to old school training with defence on one day and attack on the other day.
"Next year I will be more emphatic about how I want to train and how I want to play. We did make some progress and there were positive signs – the truth is that next year I will probably be more confident."
Dobson has pin-pointed specific areas where they will be looking to improve before the start of the 2016 season.
"With this pre-season it is going to be vital especially around breakdowns and defence. Breakdowns and defence are fundamental stuff which is tricky to do during the season. The actual tackle technique, cleaning and more body contact stuff – you can't really do that in a competition.
"There is still work that needs to be done, but in terms of bringing some players through [for Super Rugby] we have achieved our goal," he added.
Dobson feels that the world's oldest provincial rugby competition will once and for all be relegated to a developmental competition if rumours are true that the Currie Cup could be expanded to a 14-team competition in 2016.
According to some reports there will be a qualifying competition for all 14 teams with the top eight then advancing to the main competition and then the next seven playing in the second tier.
"The Currie Cup is going to become a younger competition and I will be doing the Currie Cup for the next couple of years. I think in the new format the first half will be very much a developmental competition and my thinking is to put up the previous year's Under-21s.
"At the moment [the format] is as clear as a bloody mary. We are just hearing stuff and we are waiting until after the World Cup to get clarity," said Dobson.
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
