DHL Stormers to keep it simple against Chiefs

DHL Stormers Head Coach Robbie Fleck wants his team to keep things simple in their Vodacom Super Rugby quarterfinal against the Chiefs at DHL Newlands on Saturday.

Having won the Africa Conference One title with 10 wins from 15 games this season, the DHL Stormers earned home advantage in what will be their second consecutive quarterfinal against the Chiefs.

One of those 10 wins was against the Chiefs at DHL Newlands, so Fleck’s team certainly know what it takes to beat the team from Hamilton.

The DHL Stormers coach said that he has tried to make things as simple as possible this week in order to ensure that his team is able to execute their gameplan with confidence in the knock-out game.

“The main thing is that we build it up this week and there is absolute clarity for every player and management member so that by the end of the week we are extremely confident in what we have to do.

“We are a tough side to beat at home, we know what is expected of us and what the challenges are that the Chiefs are going to bring.

“It is always a challenge playing against a team that has linespeed on defence, but if you can get in behind them then you are in the game.

“We need to be smart in the way we plan our attack and utilise our ball-carriers to get that momentum and into that space,” he said.

Fleck has been encouraged by the attacking flair his team has shown in recent weeks, scoring 18 tries in their last three games and proving especially lethal on the counter-attack.

“We are scoring some good tries at the moment, especially from broken play and counter-attack. Our structured play was a little bit better against the Bulls than the previous week,” he said.

Looking back on how far his team has come since their quarterfinal against the Chiefs last year, Fleck said that there has been some real growth in a number of areas.

“Thanks to the Chiefs we learned a helluva lot from that game, now down the line we are way better prepared than we were 12 months ago.

“We are a fitter side, we are a better balanced side and we have also improved our structures and our skill level which were all question marks about us last year,” he said.

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