Vermeulen: Stormers need to sharpen up

Stormers captain Duane Vermeulen has admitted that will need to sharpen up if they are to maintain their winning run in this year’s Super Rugby campaign.

The Stormers came from behind to snatch a 22-19 victory over the Lions in Johannesburg after trailing for 76 minutes.

Playing in wet conditions at Ellis Park, the hosts took the early lead and maintained a 19-15 advantage in the dying stages, before Siya Kolisi barged over at the back of a maul to put his side in front for the first time in the game, and Kurt Coleman slotted the conversion.

Refusing to give up, the Lions surged forward in a final attempt to bag a crucial win, camping on the Stormers try-line after the horn had blown.

Howard Mnisi lost the ball in a tackle by Damian de Allende after crossing the whitewash, however, and the visitors held on to remain unbeaten from three matches.

While he was delighted to steal four points at the deat Vermeulen said that their set phases need a lot of work.

“Our set phases were definitely not good and our lineouts were terrible, but we’re going to work on that,” Vermeulen said.

“There are still a lot of games to play in this competition and we can only get better, so we’re just going to go back and work on that.”

Man of the match Damian De Allende paid credit to the Lions for standing up to the Stormers.

“Whenever you come to Ellis Park the Lions throw everything at you, so you have to come prepared and there are sore bodies the next day,” said , the man of the Match.

“Credit to the Lions, and also credit to our defence. Our forward pack worked very hard today.”