After their shock defeat on Saturday at the hands of the lowly Cheetahs, who went into the match having won only three out of 10 games, the Stormers have dropped into an overall 7th place.
They do have a string of home matches ahead, and their home record is excellent, but this will not be enough to resurrect their fortunes.
In recent weeks, the Stormers have produced a champion scrum, and they have a match winner in sharpshooter Demetri Catrakilis, who cried off at halftime on Saturday after taking a few big first-half hits from the Cheetahs’ defence.
Catrakilis’ replacement Kurt Coleman had a nightmare outing, and if he had been on target with at least three out of four penalties, the Stormers might have edged the Cheetahs.
Instead he missed all four, and the Stormers came away empty-handed against a side that did without the services of several key players on the day.
The Stormers’ line-out is still a problem, and that will have to be addressed to keep the team competitive.
DHL Stormers captain Duane Vermeulen said afterwards: “It’s obviously disappointing and not what we wanted, but we need to learn from games and results like this.”
“Some stupid mistakes cost us, and like I said, we need to learn from this experience and continue to work harder.”
