Stormers coach Robbie Fleck took on a difficult job when he accepted the coaching position two years ago.
The Stormers had just been ditched by Eddie Jones, who couldn't resist the lure of the England job. The Stormers had the ambition and the personnel to break their Super Rugby playoff hoodoo but they had a coaching deficit.
Under Allister Coetzee, the Stormers were inconsistent playoff bets but their ceiling was always the first playoff they confronted.
However, under Fleck this season, the Stormers weren't able to break their duck and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four years. To ram home their mediocrity, the Stormers did not win a game on the road and suffered the ignominy of losing to the Sunwolves.
While Fleck admitted the Stormers had a season to forget, he said he still had a year on his contract and it's business as usual for him.
"Like I do every year, I will do a review for the director of rugby (Gert Smal) which I do with my coaches and the senior players. The director of rugby then presents it to the board but there's a year left on my contract so there's no change. I haven't spoken to the board or anything like that. I know that I've got a contract and it's business as usual," Fleck said.
"We are assessing our game each week and we reassess when we have breaks. It's not right for me to talk because the review is not complete. We'll do our reviews post-Super Rugby and ours will end two weeks earlier. It takes two to three weeks to complete the review."
Western Province Rugby president Thelo Wakefield said it wasn't "ethical" to discuss the future of a province's employee in the media.
"We'll be having a board meeting on July 31 where we'll evaluate the team's performance and the coaching team's performance. At this moment, I feel it is unethical to discuss this matter now in newspapers before I address the board with these matters," Wakefield said.
The first two years of Fleck's coaching tenure with the Stormers gave no indication of the struggles that were to come.
The 2016 season saw the Stormers finish top of the African Conference One and earn a home playoff against the Chiefs.
All the hard work that saw the Stormers win 10 of their 15 league matches was soiled by the mother of all hammerings — 60-21.
If there was rot setting in the following season, it was evident when they conceded more than 40 points in three successive losses against the Crusaders, Hurricanes and Highlanders. Even then, they were still good enough to make the playoffs.
Again the Chiefs got the better of them (17-11) but Fleck's side gave a far more assured account of themselves despite their lack of playoff smarts.
Nothing went right this season but Fleck said he was responsible for the team's indifferent displays. The Stormers finished their campaign yesterday when they hosted the Sharks.
"It's not ideal to have the results that we've had this year. We've been a little unlucky in some matches but I am the man in charge and I'm fully responsible for where we are. Then again, there are things that have happened this year that could have gone either way and it could have been a different story," Fleck said.
"As a coach, you go through the good times and the bad and you wear it, you grow and you learn. This year has been one where I've grown a hell of a lot in terms of being in charge. The first two years that I had went pretty well in terms of winning our conferences and getting into the quarterfinals. We competed well in last year's quarterfinal but this year, things have been challenging."..