Cape Town - It wasn’t a vintage performance, but coach Robbie Fleck was satisfied that there were enough “moments of really good rugby” by the Stormers in Saturday’s 40-22 win over the Reds at Newlands.
The Stormers scored four tries and were victorious by 18 points, but against a no-name-brand Reds outfit, one expected the Cape side to find the finishing touch that has been lacking in their game and possibly pick up a bonus point.
But they battled to find their groove on a warm and windless day, even though there were some wonderful offloads in the tackle that brought the 20 231 spectators to their feet.
“It was not the performance we wanted, to be honest. But some good moments. The consistency wasn’t there – just too many errors let us down. We say week-in week-out that we want to keep on improving, but it wasn’t really an improvement of the Lions performance,” Fleck said in the post-match press conference at Newlands on Saturday.
“But I must give the team credit, though. It’s been a disruptive week, and not to make any excuses, but we lost both our leaders (Juan de Jongh and Frans Malherbe) this weekend (which saw Damian de Allende take over the captaincy), and guys have been sick. So it’s certainly been a challenging week for everybody, but I’m proud of the boys for the way that we could still pull the win out at the end of the day.
“I think the disruptions in the week led to probably an inconsistent performance, and certainly there were moments of really good rugby, and some soft moments. It’s just that consistency that we want.”
Fleck highlighted the final try as the kind of rugby he wants to see from the Stormers. Following a sniping run by scrumhalf Louis Schreuder, centre Huw Jones cut the line and beat three defenders before slipping to the ground. But Jones kept his cool and brilliantly offloaded to prop Vincent Koch, who put in an incredible sidestep to beat the last tackler to score.
“As I say, it’s been a challenging week, and we will pick up from this. I think that the last try sort of personifies what we can do and what the boys like to do. And there were moments of that in the first half when we were able to retain possession – we certainly put them under immense pressure,” the coach said.
“I thought the Reds did well. Their set-piece was good, their broken play was good. They put us under pressure with some of their starters (moves), but to come away with a win by 18 points and not play to our best was still pretty pleasing.
“But just those soft moments and little individual errors really that got to us. Should’ve been a bigger score, to be honest, but it wasn’t. We are looking forward to Monday, that’s for sure!”
Flyhalf Jean-Luc du Plessis left the field in the second half due to thigh and calf issues, but Fleck said he should be fine for next weekend’s clash against the Waratahs at Newlands.
@IndyCapeSport