It's a 'pressure cooker' for Stormers players
REACTION: Stormers coach Rito Hlungwani was pleased with his team’s character in Kimberley against Griquas.
The team from Cape Town held off a late fightback from Griquas to secure a thrilling 38-32 win on Tuesday.
“I am very happy with our performance,” said Hlungwani. “I think we showed good intent right from the start of the game, especially because we were playing against the wind.
“We kept ball in hand, we attacked spaces really well and we managed to score five tries.
“Our backline looked quite dangerous. We got some good interplay between backs and forwards, which I thought was brilliant. Our set-piece was solid.
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#ICYMI: The Stormers held off a late fightback from Griquas to secure a thrilling win in Kimberley. https://t.co/oY3899Du6g
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The Stormers were 38-13 in front going into the final quarter before they lost their momentum after bringing on players from the bench.
“I thought the players showed some good fight and good character under pressure. It was a very good test for us,” Hlungwani added.
“We could have done better in the last 20 minutes. However, a guy like Chris Schreuder hasn’t played rugby in a long time. He comes in for 20 minutes to go and is under pressure, so we will take that into consideration, and we need to give these boys chances to play.
“I think we did well with putting on players from the bench. We gave Lee-Marvin Mazibuko some good time, Kwenzo [Blose] got some good time and Chad (Solomon] got some good time, so our bench operated well.
“That is part of building depth. You’ve got to put these guys in the pressure cooker sometimes and they’ve got to produce. We are happy with the result.”
