There is method to Fleck's madness
SUPER RUGBY REACTION: It wasn’t pretty, but the Stormers enter their bye week after two important wins against South African Conference rivals.
After starting their campaign with a horrendous 3-40 defeat to the Bulls in Round One, Robbie Fleck’s team has done some big damage control with ugly wins against the Lions and the Sharks in the last two weeks.
The Stormers’ 16-11 win against the Sharks in Durban will be particularly satisfying for Fleck after they were written off by most pundits ahead of the game due to the Sharks’ impressive start in the competition.
It might not have been evident on the field at Kings Park, but Fleck described his team’s performance as ‘smart’ against the Sharks.
“We know that we can certainly improve, but it’s the first time we’ve won here [Durban] in two or three years,” Fleck told reporters after the match.
“It’s an important win for us. Getting two wins in a row now in South African derbies is really important and I think the boys did exceptionally well in terms of sticking to the tactics.
“We were smart in the way we played. I know it wasn’t pretty, but it was smart. We put them under pressure and we built that lead and we defended it and we will take that any day.”
Fleck had a lot of praise for his pack with likes of Pieter-Steph du Toit and Eben Etzebeth standing tall in a physical encounter.
“Our pack played really well. I felt our set-piece was excellent from our own line-outs to scrums and contesting their line-outs.
“We really put them under pressure and that was certainly part of the plan and they were gifting us those opportunities.
“Credit to the boys for sticking to the plan. There is still a lot that we can work on but it’s exciting for us because we can only get better,” said Fleck.
He added: “We had a good idea of how the Sharks played and we knew what we had to do well in order to execute our game plan on them.
“I felt that the last two weeks the Sharks have really enforced their game plan on the opposition very well and they had two very good wins, but I felt that we got it tactically right.”
By Warren Fortune
@FortuneWarren
@rugby365com
