The Stormers were magnificent in turning around and erasing from the memory bank the disaster of last year, when they lost 60-21 to the same Chiefs team in the Vodacom Super Rugby quarterfinal. Fleck was rightly pleased that the hard work has paid off, and the tipping point he referred to was the barrier that has now been crossed in terms of his team’s self-belief.
At the same time though, he knows that his team needs to do what the Lions did in 2016, which is to show that the one win wasn’t a flash in the plan, and to do it consistently. And Fleck knows that the first massive test of that will come this Saturday, when those self-same Lions, well rested after their bye week, come to Cape Town for an eagerly anticipated Newlands derby.
“This result represented a tipping point in sense of the growth in the team and starting to believe what we can do,” said Fleck.
“But the Lions represent a similar challenge to what the Chiefs did. They played outstanding rugby last year and they have played great rugby this year as well. So it will be back to square one for us on Monday. We know we are playing against arguably the best South African team in the competition. We need to put plans in place because we know that when the Lions on their game they are one of the best sides in the competition.
“We wouldn’t have had doubts if we’d lost this game. For me it was always about showing we had improved since last year, and there was no denying that we have done that. What the result did was give the players belief and it is a tipping point in the sense we now know what we can do. But we need to be realistic too. This win can’t just be a one-off. We need to do what the Lions did last year and produce consistently against the New Zealand teams. That is our biggest challenge now.”
