Ospreys let slip a half-time lead for the second week running in South Africa as the Stormers hit back to seal back-to-back wins in the URC.
The Welsh region, who lost their opening game last week 53-40 to Bulls in Pretoria having led 26-19 at the break, had made an impressive start to the match, but were ultimately worn down by the Stormers’ scrummaging power.
Jones’ side had led 10-8 at the break thanks to two tries from scrum-half Kieran Hardy, which sandwiched Stormers number eight Evan Roos’ neat finish, while fly-half Jurie Matthee landed a first-half penalty for the hosts.
Mathee kicked Stormers into a 14-10 lead early in the second period by landing two more penalties before the tide turned in his side’s favour.
Centre Wandisile Simelane finished off a well-worked team move for a converted score before decisively on the night flanker Paul de Villiers went over after breaking away from a line-out to put the South Africans 26-10 in front to take the game away from the Ospreys with nine minutes to go.
Stormers went in search of a bonus-point try in the closing stages, but strong Ospreys defending would keep them out.
“It’s a difficult place to play,” said Jones. “Our accuracy was pretty good in first half, and we played the game in the right areas of the field with the lion’s share of possession.
“But in the second half, the Stormers got stuck into our contact area with a few turnovers and we lost the momentum of the game.
“They picked up a few points with penalties at goal and caught us out with their third try, which stretched the game out in the end.
“The positives are that they are all areas that we are in control over. We know the scrum is a particular strong area of our game, as is the maul.
“I was a bit frustrated with a couple of the calls on our maul in the opposition 22.
“It is very unusual to take your own maul down going forward yourself so, I was pretty keen to get some feedback from the officials so we can be better there because it’s such a big part of the game.
“But you have to be exceptional when you come to one of the tough nations around the World in the contact area. South Africa is known for their contact ferocity. The Stormers players are both technical but also really physical.
It was one of the reasons which we were able to attack well in the first-half and defensively we did a really good job there around the breakdown in terms of stiffing the speed of the Stormers ball that they thrive on.
“There were though different patches where we didn’t execute either side of the maul and good teams take advantage of that.”
Jones believes that despite the two defeats in the Southern Hemisphere, his players can be proud of their efforts, adding that the consistency shown over the two games shows progression from previous seasons.
“The fight of the players is the price of entry and not everyone pays the price,” continued Jones.
“We have a group of individuals that care about each other, work for each other and often you seen that come out in the effort and defensive side of the game.
“It was a good example of the work that the players have been doing with Justin [Tipuric] the defense coach and as you can see, they enjoy attacking on the other side.
“We have a great group of men who are hurting. To come to South Africa and be disappointed in a huddle that you haven’t won two games – if they were 60 minutes long, we could have arguably won both.
“That’s growth for us. We have come to South Africa before and won, but it’s probably the best in terms of consistency that we’ve had over the two games.
“We’ve won a game and maybe had a blow-out in the other. These two games we have been consistent in both and made the opposition teams work right up to the 80th minute.”
Next up for the Ospreys is a return to Wales to play their first home match of the season against Zebre at Bridgend’s Brewery Field next Saturday.
[Lead image: Ospreys Rugby]
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