AUDIO: 'Disappointed' Fleck to target Lions

The Cape Town-based franchise remain winless on the road, after their 23-33 loss to the Bulls in Pretoria at the weekend – their fourth defeat of the season

However, they are seeing an opportunity to end their dry run against the Lions in Johannesburg this coming week.

Although the Lions have not lost to South African opposition in almost three years – dating back to May 2015 – they are in a slump not seen since before their axing from Super Rugby in 2013.

The Lions have lost three of their last four matches and the only win was a two-point squeaker against the lowly Sunwolves.

Stormers coach Robbie Fleck admitted he was "disappointed" with the defeat – which included coughing up two maul tries.

"We weren't good and our pack didn't operate like it should have," he said of their loss to the Bulls.

"We gave them too many opportunities".

"I thought we would be better in the second half, but it was the same disease we had in the second half – we didn't get any rhythm on our attack and made too many mistakes.

"It wasn't a good performance by us and we won't dwell on it too much.

"It is a setback, because we lost to somebody in our group."

Fleck said home games are non-negotiable and then you have to win against teams in our group.

"We will move on quickly from this [Bulls loss] and focus on the Lions."

With the clash against the Lions another South African pool derby, it is an important game to win.

"The next three weeks is pretty tough," Fleck said, adding: "We are going into our eighth week without a bye.

"We are scraping the barrel in terms of the workload of the players, so we have to be careful how we train.

"It [the game against the Lions] is a big one for us.

"Our away form is hurting us, so to walk away from this game [against the Bulls] without a bonus point is pretty tough."

The only injury concern is flank Cobus Wiese, who left the field early in the match with a hamstring strain.

@rugby365com