[WATCH] Ben waiting for this: Dixon is keen to make his Stormers run count

Stormers lock Ben-Jason Dixon was socialising with his pals when coach John Dobson phoned to say he is going to back him in the No.4 jersey following Salmaan Moerat’s season-ending knee injury.

He vowed then and there to make the most of the opportunity.

Dixon, 24, recalls: “I was very excited when I got the call from Dobbo after the London Irish game when Salmaan got injured saying we’ll be backing you to start at lock, I was very excited. I was at a social and I even told my friends that I can’t wait to play and it’s been great. I’m just living by the motto of you only have limited opportunities and you’ve got to use it. I’m really enjoying it and don’t have any regrets so far.”

He looks like a man enjoying what he’s doing and has been making some bone-crunching tackles in the Stormers’ No.4 jersey in the last three games.

Up against London Irish in the European Champions Cup, where the Stormers lost their first match to Clermont before beating Sunday 3pm’s opponents in the Mother City, Dixon knows they have to up their game after losing 24-17 to Glasgow Warriors in the United Rugby Championship last weekend.

A qualified engineer, Dixon says of the Stormers missing a number of tackles last weekend: “We spent a lot of time in meetings talking about the errors made [on defence], I made some errors myself.

“It’s small errors when we go out of system, but we have a lot of confidence in how our system works. We’re not concerned that it was a system error or something that was wrong with our defence.”

With the top eight of the competition advancing to the next round, the Stormers are currently in fifth place in Pool B with two matches to go.

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