Stormers kicking themselves
The Stormers will be kicking themselves following their 19-28 loss at home to the Chiefs on Saturday after they needlessly handed the game to the visitors thanks to a poor kicking display.
A strong second half showing, coupled with poor kicking from the home side, saw the Chiefs tear the Stormers apart to walk away comfortable victors after a bruising game.
"We were beaten by the better side in the second half. The execution of our kicks let us down in the second half and we drifted from the game plan. We turned a usually structured game into an unstructured one, which cost us.
"This is a quality Chiefs side who will punish you if you hand them free possession and that is what they did," coach Allister Coetzee said.
The Stormers produced some of their best rugby in the first half but the sweltering heat took its toll on the home side as they looked lethargic as the match went on.
"It was a massive physical battle. A team with territorial advantage plays with their tails up and we didn't get any energy from our kicking game. That's what made us look so tired and lethargic in terms of our kick chase.
"We let them back into the game towards the end of the first half with a few bad kicks which led to us missing plenty of tackles. We're a side that should play with ball in hand and if there's one lesson we learned today, it is that against a quality side like the Chiefs you need to keep playing with ball in hand.
"We were forced to relieve pressure [in the second half] with kicks, but we kicked badly and it just escalated the situation. We did not execute well enough to deserve to win that game," he added.
In what has become the norm, the Stormers dominated the scrum for the most part but that changed once the replacements took to the field when they conceded penalties which Aaron Cruden took full advantage of to make the task that much harder.
"Last week the same substitutes were able to build on the foundation and I don't think that was the issue. Looking at some of those tries, sometimes you need to just stand back and applaud the Chiefs' brilliance. You can't make a plan against that," he stated.
