Coach Fleck refuses to give in to excuses after heavy defeat

Battered and bruised Stormers coach Robbie Fleck has refused to attribute his side’s humiliating 40-3 defeat to the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday to the turmoil that is playing out off the field at Western Province Rugby.

The union has been mired in controversy over the deployment of assistant-coach Paul Treu at the union, but Fleck said he would not use it as an excuse for their poor performance in the Super Rugby opener.

The visitors produced what could be described as one of their worst performances in the competition, and they failed to score a try.

“I am going to say no to that, because we are a tight-knit group and we are not going to worry about what is happening off the field‚” he said.

“It was an off-day.

“But we will pick up the pieces and go back to work on Monday because the season is still long.

“We have to look after ourselves and focus on what we have to do.

“Looking back at the game‚ it was a clinical performance by the Bulls and not so much from us,” he said.

The match was delayed for about 20 minutes after the Stormers were held up in heavy traffic on their way to Loftus, and Fleck also did not want to use that as an excuse.

“The reality is that we did not deliver as we hoped and won’t look for excuses outside of the field,” said Fleck.

He did say that the loss of captain Siya Kolisi after 26 minutes due to injury was a huge blow for them.

“When you lose your inspirational leader it does affect you.

“He got a finger in the eye and he could not continue and it was a shame to lose him that early in the game.”