‘Stormers must toughen up’

What former Bok coach NICK MALLETT had to say on SuperSport about the match between the Stormers and Sunwolves at Newlands.

'This was a fun, touch-rugby type of game. But it won’t be good enough in the quarter-finals. The Stormers have to toughen up and harden up and be more physical against the Bulls. They have to dominate to create space for the backs to operate. The Stormers have to perform at quarter-final level.

'It’s interesting, in this game the Sunwoves made 120 tackles and 22 of those were missed, which is in that 80 to 90% tackle count. Last week, they made 108 tackles and missed 53 against the Lions. So the game today was much more of a contest, despite the Sunwolves taking eight tries.

ALSO READ: Five takeaways from past weekend

'They were beaten by the excellence of the Stormers back three. Cheslin Kolbe, Seabelo Senatla and Dillyn Leyds were devastating off turnover ball and from any broken play situations. A couple of kicks ahead from Kolbe and they scored long-range tries. They really are good finishers.

'It’s still a worry that it took the Stormers 40 minutes before they started playing properly, with their forwards dominating the contact area and getting some good go-forward ball. It was a situation of the Stormers having more talented individuals than the Sunwolves, which is why they won. It wasn’t a collective, organised team effort. And they have to get that right against the Bulls next weekend because the following weekend they’ll face a New Zealand team [in the quarter-finals], and whoever they play is going to be really tough.

'Damian Willemse has to work on his game management. Individually he is a brilliant broken-field runner with a great step and great finishing ability, as we saw against the Cheetahs last week and again this week. But a couple of his kicks were aimless today, his long-distance kicks to touch have to improve and his goal kicking too.'

WATCH: Highlights of Stormers vs Sunwolves

Photo: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix

Post by