Stormers will regroup after tough start to season – Fleck

THE defence and breakdown of the Stormers are the areas that need intervention before the next phase of the Super Rugby competition, coach Robbie Fleck said.

His side was well off the pace in losing 52-31 to the Lions at Ellis Park‚ but they can regroup and recoup with a bye this week after eight straight games.

With his team leaking tries in recent weeks‚ Fleck said it was too early to tell whether having defence coaching duties split between two coaches was working.

“Defensively we have to be better‚” he said. “You can’t be leaking eight tries – some soft tries too.

“That is definitely something we have to work on.

“The breakdown needs to be better too. At the breakdown, I thought the Lions were outstanding and that is where they slowed our ball down. When we retained possession we looked a decent side.

“We were also beaten at the breakdown by the Bulls. That we have to work on.”

Fleck acknowledged they were beaten by a better team on the day, but said his players kept on fighting – especially through the efforts of Pieter-Steph du Toit.

“We created opportunities, but obviously we didn’t convert. We were well beaten by a better team on the day‚” he said.

Fleck noted after his team’s jaded performance against the Bulls the week before that the workload of playing seven consecutive matches might have caught up with his team.

But he said: “The Lions also had seven or eight games in a row. “We are looking forward to the break. “That is the first half of the competition gone. We have to reset our goals, obviously.

“We have an away game against the Sharks before we have some home games.”

The Stormers trail the Lions – the conference and overall log leaders by 12 points – but Fleck was sanguine about their prospects of catching up.

“They have a tough tour ahead of them‚” he said. “The way they played in this game they can look forward to that tour. “By no means are we out of it. “We still have eight games to go,” the Cape Town team’s coach said.