Stormers want to find their 'mojo' again
Robbie Fleck's side lost their last four matches in this year's Super Rugby tournament after winning their first six encounters. Their last win came against the Chiefs in Cape Town on April 8.
Defeats to the Lions (16-29), Crusaders (24-57), Highlanders (14-57) and Hurricanes (22-41) exposed many weaknesses in the Cape side. However, Fleck believes his team's recent form is not a train smash heading into the final rounds of the competition.
"We want an improvement from the tour," said Fleck. "We dropped off on one or two things on tour that we felt that we got right in the first six games.
"We want to find our mojo again and get that confidence going again. There are certain targets that we have given the team this week and I am happy to say that we have achieved it in training and now it is just about executing it on the day."
The Stormers conceded a whopping 24 tries on their recent tour to New Zealand and Fleck believes that their defence is still very much a work in progress.
"Defence is not a standalone thing and certainly the turnovers have contributed. I am not saying that our defence has been perfect. There are certainly things that we have to work on. It has been a big focus for us in the last two weeks.
"A large amount of those tries that have been scored against us are 80-metre tries. They were 14-point swingers which hurts, so we don't want to dig too deep in terms of our defence.
"We are certainly trying to get some line-speed in our defence. There were some poor decisions, there are some missed tackled and for us, our defence, like our attack, has growing pains at the moment," Fleck added.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be on Dillyn Leyds in the No.10 channel on Friday, while the midfield combination of Shaun Treeby and EW Viljoen will be facing a tough task against All Blacks Sonny Bill Williams and George Moala.
"It is what it is, that is the combination that we have got," said Fleck.
"I felt that Shaun Treeby did really well against the 'Canes. Defensively he was solid and he created a lot of line-speed there. He has played against these guy a number of times.
"With Dillyn there [at flyhalf], he is the obvious choice for us because of the continuity that came from that Hurricanes game where he didn't do too badly there.
"It is an untested combination [inside backs]. It is not a tested combination, but that is the situation that we are in. They got a big job to do facing that combination of Sonny Bill and Moala. It is quite a tough midfield to face."
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
