Stormers are a 'devastated' bunch
The Stormers suffered their eighth defeat of the 2018 Super Rugby season when they went down 23-26 to the bottom-placed Sunwolves thanks to an impressive drop goal from Hayden Parker three minutes after the full-time hooter sounded.
It would have been a great injustice if the game ended in a draw as the Sunwolves were the better team on the day.
Fleck's side on the other hand still looked unimaginative with ball in hand and relied mostly on opportunistic moments and errors from the opposition for their tries.
The Stormers currently sit at the bottom of the South African Conference and 11th in the overall standings.
"It could have gone either way," said Fleck. "I felt there were a few opportunities for us in the end there, but credit to the Sunwolves they got the turnover and they were playing with a lot more confidence than we were in the conditions – they worked their way up the field and obviously a bit of exceptional brilliance from Parker won the game off his right foot.
"It really was testing conditions. I think both teams tactically tried the same thing – like when they got into our half they just had that ability to retain possession whereas we let it slip.
"We made too many handling errors, especially in that latter part of the game to put them under any sort of pressure to either force some space or a penalty in our favour, whereas they had the confidence to move it around a bit and worked themselves in a good position to win it."
The Stormers would have seen the match in Hong Kong as a good opportunity to end their losing streak away from home. However, they are clearly a team without strong leadership on and off the field.
"From my point of view we are pretty devastated, but we will approach every single game the same way," Fleck added.
"We got to win next week [against the Lions] at Newlands then we will reassess after that over the June break.
"The game, like last week, was an important game, but credit must be given to the Sunwolves. It was a good win for them and their rugby is improving, and it is exciting for Japanese rugby."
@rugby365com
