Paul Treu. Photo: Ziyaad Douglas/Gallo Images.
It’s probably not surprising that an upcoming Stormers team has struggled on their tour to New Zealand.
Yet what has been striking is the margins they’ve lost by.
Robbie Fleck’s troops have conceded a massive 114 points, leaking 17 tries in the process.
Also read: Robbie Fleck: I promise the Stormers won’t become conservative
Suddenly, there are a lot of questions over the Capetonians’ defensive system as they go into Friday’s match against the Hurricanes in Wellington.
A lot of the blame has been laid at defence coach Paul Treu’s door.
The former Blitzboks mentor is still relatively new to 15-man rugby, having been appointed before 2015’s campaign.
For some, that’s enough time.
But Fleck is adamant Treu isn’t at fault.
“What people forget is that a team’s defence is a complex system of different factors,” he said.
“It’s not just about a structure, it also needs to be executed by players. And that brings other things into play.”
Instead, the Stormers’ individual errors – especially on the attack – has placed them under pressure.
“We’ve been making silly errors where we should’ve been in control,” said Fleck.
“We’ve conceded points because of our own mistakes. It’s happened when we’ve coughed up possession on the attack or made a poor exit. It’s not always been the opposition that’s put us under pressure, rather our own turnovers.”
Nobody really expects the Stormers to fare much better against a Hurricanes team that’s scored 56 tries to date.
However, it’s only natural to ask if there’s at least something being done about it.
“We’ve been playing against quality opposition and we’ve definitely had to plug the gaps,” said Fleck.
“We work on our defence daily and we always get tested. We’re doing our best but it’s not easy always to identify what exactly is going wrong.”
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