John Dobson reveals Siya Kolisi was ready to jump in and make his official return for the Stormers in Friday night’s URC season-opening win in Galway.
Kolisi rejoined the Cape club this season and joined the team ahead of a 29-15 victory against Connacht at The Sportsground.
He left the Springbok camp ahead of South Africa’s one-off Test against the Wallabies on Sunday.
“Just a big shoutout to Siya Kolisi, who asked to come,” Dobson said post-match on Friday. “He wanted to play tonight despite landing so late last night.
“A guy like that who’s so invested and an amazing example of action speaking louder than words … He comes here, invests so heavily, straps, warms up with the team. Meant a lot to us.”
Dobson made several enforced personnel changes before kick-off, with loose forwards Evan Roos (hamstring) and Marcel Theunissen (calf) ruled out, but provided no injury update on either of them.
RECAP: Stormers make winning start in Galway
“Very proud of that performance, we probably made it more difficult than it needed to be,” the coach added. “But I think given the disruptions of this week, it was an extraordinary performance.
“Process-wise, we probably deserved to win it, or we did. I thought our plan was good.
“Some mistakes, something around the attack in the second half where we were playing off nine a lot and maybe we didn’t stretch them enough defensively.”
“I’ve been excited to be back with the boys, but obviously would love to be on the field with them”
Captaen an Afraic Theas, Siya Kolisi, ar bís le bheith ar ais le na Stormers i mbliana@connachtrugby 12@THESTORMERS 10@RSAIreland @IrishRugby #URC pic.twitter.com/VVSY3oernB
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) September 25, 2026
Dobson also praised debutants Riley Norton, Vernon Paulo and Ezekiel Ngobeni, the latter two getting on the scoresheet in the four-try win.
“To reshuffle like we did … Louw Nel, Hacjivah Dayimani and Riley were superb. A very nice romantic story is Vernon and Ezekiel making their debuts and getting tries.
“To get through the game without any real injury concerns, and just the performance of the 20-year-old Yaqeen Ahmed, who I thought was really mature.
“Olly Reid was also very impressive so by our standards, a really good day at the office.
“We had a plan on the bench in 45 minutes to change the two props and the two locks. I think that worked, we didn’t have the loose forward option,” he noted.
“To get five points in a place like this –[Connacht] going to tip a lot of teams on this ground – it was very satisfying.”
The team now travels to Scotland for a round-two clash next Friday against an Edinburgh outfit fresh off a 34-29 triumph over Ulster.
Photo: Vodacom URC/Instagram
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John Dobson reveals Siya Kolisi was ready to jump in and make his official return for the Stormers in Friday night’s URC season-opening win in Galway.
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