Robbie Fleck says the Stormers are searching for greater consistency in their performances, writes CRAIG LEWIS.

The Stormers remain top of the South African group standings after their hard-fought win over the Reds on Saturday, but they certainly made heavy weather of it as the visitors scored two tries early in the second half to suddenly edge ahead.

In the end, three important penalties and a late try enabled the Stormers to come away with a 40-22 victory that ensures they remain just ahead of the chasing Lions in the South African group.

Afterwards, Fleck said that while it was a pleasing result, he acknowledged that they needed to keep striving for higher standards.

‘We say week in and week out that we want to keep improving, but it wasn’t really an improvement on our performance against the Lions. But I must give the team credit after a disruptive week when we lost both our leaders [Juan de Jongh and Frans Malherbe to injury and illness], so I’m proud of the way we still managed to pull through for the win.

‘There were moments of good rugby, but also some soft moments, so we’re still looking for that consistency,’ he added. ‘When we retained possession we certainly put the Reds under pressure, but there were just those soft moments and individual errors that prevented it from being what could have been a bigger score. So we’re going to get stuck in on Monday, that’s for sure.’

The Stormers next face the Waratahs on Saturday, and will be hoping to have De Jongh (concussion) and Malherbe (flu) available. After this weekend’s encounter, the Stormers can then look forward to a bye.

‘There was some good stuff to build on [from the Reds game],’ Fleck commented. ‘We’re trying to change and there will be times where there are soft moments because we’re continuing to try new things. So, to be able to get the result even when we haven’t performed at our best, that’s encouraging. There are just some minor things we still need to work on.’

Photo: Luigi Bennett/BackpagePix