Stormers tone down expectations after 'learning' against New Zealand teams

The Stormers coaching staff insists that it’s premature to expect the team to be serious Super Rugby title contenders this season and their development is expected to take ‘two to three’ years.

It’s a less expectant tone than the team struck at the start of the 2017 campaign‚ bred out of four losses on the trot before arresting the slide with a 30-22 win over the Blues last weekend.

Losing heavily on their recent tour of New Zealand gave the players and the coaches more intelligence about their weaknesses and strengths and forced them to recalibrate expectations after a season that started with six consecutive wins.

Skills coach Paul Feeney wasn’t overly concerned about the 57-24‚ 57-14 and 41-22 losses to the Crusaders‚ Highlanders and Hurricanes respectively on their recent tour.

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“Getting a hiding isn’t a bad thing if you learn from it‚” Feeney said. “We could play to lose by 10 points.

"If we went out with that mindset‚ and just defended and kicked for position‚ we could do a good damage limitation job‚ and we would probably come quite close but still lose.

"What is the point of that? We are playing to win‚ and that is the way that it should be. “We have changed a lot‚ both in terms of the way we play and the mindset that we take onto the field. Getting it right is going to take time.

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“We are busy with a process and along the way there will be some short-term pain for long-term gain.

"The Lions appear to be getting it right but how long ago did John Mitchell and Carlos Spencer start them on their path? It was several years ago. They have taken time to get it right.

“What happened to us was that we upped expectations by beating the Chiefs and perhaps we got a false idea ourselves where we were.

"The New Zealand tour was good in that it showed us where we are and what we need to do. But we are proud of the fact we are the only side outside of New Zealand that has beaten a New Zealand team this year.”

• Erratic Stormers still have good attitudeThe Stormers are the only non-New Zealand team to record a win over a Kiwi franchise this season‚ a feat they’ve achieved twice‚ yet it still feels they are some way off the standard of the world’s leading rugby nation. 

The Stormers conceded 155 points and 24 tries in those games on tour. They struggled to come to terms with NZ teams’ linespeed‚ which in turn led to several tries from turnover.

“The guys had lots of things to cope with that they hadn’t experienced before‚ and under pressure we did struggle with our skills‚” Feeney said.

“But we only started training our skills six months ago. We had to be part of two changes – the mindset and the technical aspect. It will take us two to three years to perfect what we are working on.

• Stormers fight back to ensure play-offThe Stormers arrested an alarming slide with a character-filled win over the Blues at Newlands on Friday which snuffed out all risk of missing the play-offs. 

“We will try and win a few big games between now and then‚ but we will occasionally get it wrong in our quest to chase what we are looking for.

“What we learned in New Zealand was that those teams punish you more and you get away with less than is the case when you play other teams.

"We made small mistakes that were punished. Earlier in the year‚ when we were winning six matches in a row‚ we made those same mistakes but got away with those faults.”

  - TMG Digital/TMG Sport