Disappointed Malherbe slams Stormers ill-discipline in Ospreys loss

Stormers captain for the day Frans Malherbe was very disappointed with the performance of his charges after they were stunned 27-21 by a fired-up Ospreys team in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.

The Stormers were hot favourites going into the game and were expected to pick up a full house of points to continue their strong recent form in the competition.

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However a shoddy and error strewn performance allowed the Welsh visitors to take a 17-7 lead into the halftime break, with them maintaining that good lead in the second half, until a penalty try after the fulltime hooter brought the Stormers within seven to pick up a vital losing bonus point.

Candid Malherbe

Malherbe was candid after the game, admitting that the team was at fault for not getting the win, while he also defended the amount of changes that were made to the team heading into the match, saying that it didn’t play a role in their defeat.

“We are very disappointed. Credit to them for a very good first half performance. But I think our mistakes cost us dearly in the first half,” explained Malherbe.

“It was very frustrating. We spent many passages of play in their 22m, but we couldn’t capitalise on that. I don’t think (the changes) cost us. We are a team of quality players, so I think the responsibility falls on us to perform.”

Looking ahead the Stormers welcome Leinster to Cape Town next weekend, before they head off on a two game tour to the UK, making the next game vitally important for their playoff aspirations.

Second string Leinster

Leinster have brought a largely second-string team to South Africa, and they were soundly beaten by the Lions on Saturday, so they will be desperate to bounce back and the Stormers will have to fix the mistakes they made against Ospreys to be ready for that challenge.

“Our big work-ons will be on our discipline and our mistakes in our own half that cost us dearly. We can’t play that much rugby in our own half. So we have to cut out the mistakes, get our discipline where it needs to be and work on that,” said Malherbe.

Ospreys coach Toby Booth was a delighted man after the match, and was thrilled with his teams response after they were knocked out of the Challenge Cup by Gloucester last weekend.

“It’s been good pickings for us. We’ve come to South Africa twice and won twice (this season) which is great. I am just really pleased with the manner of our performance,” said Booth.

“We were really disappointed to fall out of Europe last week. So the emotional control that we saw today produced a more Ospreys like performance. We fixed a lot of things and we got a great result.”