Fleck believes his team can go ‘back to the top’
STORMERS COACH Robbie Fleck says he’s pleased that they could end their season on a high note with a 27-16 victory against the Sharks at Newlands.
The Stormers’ Super Rugby season is over after winning just six of their 15 matches in 2018. And had they been able to produce more outings like that one, it could have been a very different season for the Cape side.
It was a game that the Stormers played with intent and purpose and ran in three good tries to the Sharks’ one. One of those was scored from the counter attack after half-centurion Dillyn Leyds created some magic, and Cobus Wiese’s one was just as impressive after Damian de Allende spotted and accelerated into the gap before offloading to Wiese to score.
The Sharks, on the other hand, were their own worst enemies.
The fixture against the Stormers was a must-win to secure a play-off spot. And although they still have a mathematical chance, it will no doubt be a tough one against the Jaguares in Durban next week.
Robert du Preez’s men made a number of mistakes and also slipped too many tackles, but after a relatively flat first half, they looked better in the second.
After the match, Fleck credited his team for their fighting spirit that allowed them to get the win against a Sharks team which played with more intent after the break.
“It was nice to finish off on a high note,” Fleck said. “Our season is well-documented. We showed a lot of promise building up to a good lead at half time and the Sharks played a little bit better in the second half.”
“The boys showed good character and good fight. And towards the end we grew stronger again. For the first time this season luck was on our side.”
The Stormers have often started well this season only to fade after half time. So it was of course important to make an 80-minute performance the goal seeing that they were keen on salvaging some pride.
And it was an effort the Stormers mentor is pleased with.
“The first half showed what this team is capable of doing. We’ll look back at it and regret losing against the Waratahs and the Sunwolves, and that Lions game (we could have won).”
“I’m immensely proud of the boys.”
“Our execution and our finishing has let us down this year. It was good against the Sharks, especially in that first half. We’ll start our review the week after next, that should take one or two weeks and we’ll see what happens.”
Fleck has come under fire a number of times this season as the Stormers have lost matches they just shouldn’t have. But he is confident they’ve got the right formula to succeed.
“We’ve got to put plans in place for 2019 and we’re obviously not happy with where we are, but there was a huge amount of lessons learnt and we believe we’ve got the squad and management to take this franchise back to the top. And that’ll be our motivation for next year.”