The Stormers’ disappointing finish to the United Rugby Championship (URC) pool stage has left them with plenty of work to do if they want to lift the tournament trophy for a second time.
It is a mess of their own making following a poor second half of their campaign. While they started the season in tremendous form, they were unfortunately unable to sustain it.
The Stormers enjoyed an incredible start to the season, winning their opening 10 matches in all competitions, eight of which were in the URC, which saw them finish the year unbeaten.
But cracks started to show in January when they lost to Leicester Tigers in the Champions Cup, followed by some poor performances in the local derbies.
They began their quest for the SA Shield well enough, beating the Lions and Bulls, but they then fell to back-to-back defeats against the Sharks, who were struggling at that stage, and were comfortably beaten by the Lions.
Bounce back
They managed to bounce back with a win over the Bulls at Loftus to end their losing run, but by then the Stormers had shown their frailties, which they continued to do down the back end of the pool stage.
A four-game home run against overseas opposition should have been the perfect opportunity to get back on track, but the Stormers did not look convincing as they battled to a win against bottom-dwelling Dragons, and needed a late show to beat Edinburgh who were also in the bottom half.
Then came a huge result in the context of their season, a home loss against Connacht, and despite responding with their best performance in months, a thrashing of Glasgow Warriors to leapfrog them at the top of the points table, they still needed to finish well.
They were unable to do that, drawing with Ulster and losing to Cardiff, to slip to third.
They now host Cardiff in their quarterfinal next weekend where they can get immediate revenge, but if Glasgow and Leinster both win their knockouts, the Stormers will have to travel to Dublin for a semifinal against the defending champions.
