Stormers hunt for elusive formula

The Stormers are still not satisfied with their game despite two good Super Rugby wins and are still searching for the formula to be more ruthless and clinical in their finishing, writes Craig Ray.

In the past two weeks they have beaten the Blues (37-20) and the Reds (25-19) at Newlands and scored seven tries. They are the fifth-highest tryscorers out of the 15 teams in the tournament.

But they have left several on the pitch‚ a source of nagging frustration for coach Robbie Fleck‚ especially after last week’s game against the Reds.

“We were dominant and created opportunities‚ but I am not happy with the final execution‚” Fleck said. “If we get that right then the points will pile up and the scores will be bigger.

“If we can have a week when we have continuity in our play and selections‚ we can go far in this competition. The players were a bit frustrated at the end because they know they were the dominant team.

“We dictated the game for the majority of it but our execution let us down in the second half. It is disappointing that we didn’t win by more [points]‚ but credit to the Reds — they stayed in the fight‚ but the tries they scored were through our errors.”

Skills and attack coach Paul Feeney is not panicking though. The Stormers backline is callow and injuries have robbed it of consistency. “Some days are better than others for whatever reason — [either] the opposition has put too much pressure on you or you were running too fast and cut down your time to think and make a decision and you make a mistake‚” he said.

“So in training we are constantly working on repetition so it all comes naturally.

“If you haven’t played 30‚ 40 Super Rugby games you have a long way to go. I consider that the threshold to finding your feet and some of our younger backs are new to this level of rugby and they are tasked with being the decision-makers.

“I understand when they don’t see the occasional chance‚” Feeney said.

He recognised the Stormers have to make some improvements. “We have to get back to playing with more width. We haven’t played as expansively as we did last year. We’ve been more forward dominant and gone down the middle a lot.

“We scored four tries against the Crusaders and they came from three props and a lock‚ so it’s not quite the flair of last year‚ is it? That highlight is how well some of our forwards are carrying‚ which is a plus for us.

“Against the Blues the backs scored four tries and against the Reds they combined for some good tries too.”