Stormers coach Robbie Fleck felt his team were unlucky to be on the losing side in the 17-11 Super Rugby quarter-final defeat to the Chiefs at Newlands on Saturday.
The Stormers stayed within touching distance of the Chiefs throughout the match but everytime it looked as if the home side would regain their lead, they gave away crucial penalties which Damian McKenzie capitalised on and he kicked four penalties alongside a Shaun Stevenson try. The Stormers scored through captain Siya Kolisi and two SP Marais penalties.
Kolisi and Fleck have both lamented the 'costly individual errors' while the former said in the aftermath of the game that the Stormers had 'lost to themselves'.
And Fleck said that this defeat was tough to take seeing as they came so close but could just not get over the line.
"Last year's [21-60 quarterfinal] loss [to the same Chiefs team] was pretty humiliating," Fleck said.
"It was a different feeling," he said of the loss this past Saturday.
"This year [it is] a lot tougher to swallow, especially how far we have come in the last 12 months.
"It was on a knife's edge and there was one point in it with five minutes to go. We had an opportunity to go ahead in the game.
"I don't know if the better team won.
"Certainly we are a better outfit than we were 12 months ago."
Fleck also spoke of the "long journey" of the last year and how "tough" it is to take the latest defeat.
"I am happy where we are in our game at the moment," the Stormers coach said, adding: "We have shown massive improvement.
"There are lots of good signs and this team can only get better.
"The things that were questioned of us at this table last year – on conditioning, on skills, decision making – those are things we worked incredibly hard at.
"We have managed to take a massive leap in the right direction.
"We have the ability to score tries now and put defences under pressure.
"In terms of the progression of our defence, it was a questionmark in the latter part of the competition.
"I felt we defended outstandingly well – against a quality outfit."
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