Stormers’ errors make it close call

STORMERS coach Robbie Fleck was more relieved than happy with his side’s 28-20 win over the Jaguares at Newlands on Saturday‚ which kicked off their Super Rugby campaign positively.

But it could have been a different mood had the Jaguares stolen a victory in a match where they were played off the park for an hour.

The Stormers scored two firsthalf tries but left four more out there due to poor execution‚ which included poor handling and incorrect option-taking.

The Jaguares should never have been in the contest by half time‚ and because they were‚ it set up a nail-biting finish.

Stormers’ hooker Ramone Samuels was sin-binned in the 65th minute for killing the ball and from the ensuing scrum the visitors earned a penalty try as the home team tried to keep them at bay with seven men.

With about six minutes to go, the Stormers had to defend another 5m scrum and this time Fleck ordered centre Damian de Allende to scrum at flank.

After the scrum initially went up and was reset‚ the Stormers won a crucial penalty on the second set‚ which ultimately won the game.

How it was so close though‚ was largely down to errors by the Stormers.

“We had so many chances in the first half but our finishing let us down‚” Fleck said.

“It’s partly to do with rustiness because of the number of injuries and changes we have had to make over the past couple of weeks.

“Probably only having two preseason games was also a factor in those errors.

“It wasn’t only the finishing; it was also the decision-making that killed us.

“We left a lot of points out there‚ but in the final assessment we showed great character to hang on in the end.”

Jaguares coach Mario Ledesma concurred that his side made it too easy for the Stormers to cut their line from deep.

“We have a team that always shows a lot of fight‚ which we showed in the second half to come back and give ourselves a chance of winning the game‚” Ledesma said.

“We need to get better technically because we cannot lose as much ball as we did in the first half‚ or give away such easy line breaks.”

Meanwhile, the Stormers have suffered another setback with the news that hooker Bongi Mbonambi will miss their tour to Australasia.

The Springbok hooker was rushed into surgery on Friday after suffering a burst appendix‚ ruling him out of action for at least the next three weeks.

Fleck said Mbonambi was recovering well but clearly would not undertake the Super Rugby tour to play against the Waratahs‚ defending champions Crusaders and the Highlanders over the next three weeks. – TimesLIVE