Stormers boss responds to online trolls

, Dobson made it clear he largely ignores social media commentary.

Speaking at Friday’s press conference, and reported by SA Rugby Mag

“I genuinely don’t read it.

"But when you see it, it’s unbelievable. People who know nothing about our process or what a player is going through – whether an injury or their family – feel free to assassinate someone’s character.”

He went on to highlight how personal the criticism can become.

“To say this guy is s**t and shouldn’t be part of the Stormers, and that La Rochelle is not far enough away for Salmaan Moerat …”

“Social media has changed things dramatically, I don’t read it.

"I read the mainline articles which I have no problem with because these are guys who grew up in journalism and have some fairness and audi alteram partem [hear the other side].

“But this world where you can assassinate a person’s character like that based on absolutely no information and it’s published … it’s there in black and white …”

Dobson also criticised what he sees as an increasingly extreme online culture.

“The world that the youth operate in now is so binary – if you’re not with me, you’re against me, then you hate me, and I hate you. It’s just a bilge.

“I wouldn’t like to be Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu now, I wouldn’t like to be Warrick Gelant. What’s he done wrong? Made mistakes on a rugby field? He hasn’t gone and invaded a country and strung nuns from a tree. But that’s the sort of level of abuse you get now.”

He stressed the already intense demands placed on professional players.

“These guys are under a lot of pressure every week, even if there wasn’t social media. They are under pressure to perform physically on the field. There’s a reason there are ambulances, doctors and defibrillators at games. That’s just the rugby side.

“Then you’ve got the added stress of someone telling you, or your kid reading, that you are s**t … from some expert sitting in his dressing gown.”

Dobson pointed to former Stormers fly-half Manie Libbok as an example of the impact of such criticism.

“The guy couldn’t handle it … he’s in Japan now.

“Sacha is going to be a generationally great Springbok for South Africa,” Dobson added.

“We are going to look back, there’s going to be autobiographies, movies and we are going to think what a player, how privileged we were to have our own Dan Carter.

“So I don’t understand what you achieve now by saying he is s**t or got no BMT [big match temperament] or whatever.”