ON THE BACK FOOT: Stormers’ fullback and try scorer Cheslin Kolbe, right, takes on Jeronimo de la Fuente of the Jaguares in Buenos Aires on Saturday night. Picture: REUTERS/MARCOS BRINDICCI

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THE Stormers were barely able to enjoy their 13-8 victory over the Jaguares in Buenos Aires before bad news filtered back to the camp.

Wing Dillyn Leyds has torn his anterior cruciate ligament and is out for the season, while scrumhalf Jano Vermaak had surgery to his neck and could miss the next four months.

Neither were in Argentina, but the news of their misfortune only reached the camp during the weekend. It was a sour way to end a good trip that saw the Stormers move to the top of the South African conference standings with 18 points from four wins in five outings. They have a bye this weekend before taking on Japan’s Sunwolves.

With star fullback Cheslin Kolbe in doubt for the Stormers’ next assignment against the Sunwolves at Newlands after being knocked out against the Jaguares, coach Robbie Fleck could have a fullback problem.

Leyds would have been the natural fit if Kolbe is ruled out.

Scrumhalf is not such an issue though, with both Nic Groom and Louis Schreuder performing well.

In other good news, Springbok centre Damian de Allende is a couple of weeks ahead of schedule with his return from an ankle injury and should be available for the match against the Sunwolves in 13 days’ time.

Lock-flank Rynhardt Elstadt is also due to return in time to play against the Japanese team after joining De Allende at Currie Cup training in the past few weeks.

"We’ll only have a clearer picture on Cheslin’s progress in a few days’ time," Fleck said.

"He was knocked out cold and was in a bad way coming off the pitch, but later on in the evening, he passed his concussion protocols, which is a good sign. We’ll test him again when we get back to Cape Town. It’s a bit early to say what we’ll do if he is ruled out. We are stretched a bit at fullback, but we have EW Viljoen coming back."

Fleck was full of praise for the team’s effort, although he was still not satisfied that they were clinical enough, especially when they dominated all aspects of the match in the first half.

However, before being knocked out, Kolbe wrong-footed the Jaguares defence to score near the posts for an easy conversion for Kurt Coleman and a comfortable 13-3 lead. The Stormers went into the break 13-8 up, but left two or three tries out there.

Their scrum was hugely dominant in the first half, but faltered in the second while their defence was also patchy with many one-on-one tackles missed.

"Our defence was disappointing at times, but the Jaguares deserve credit for how they played," Fleck said. "They worked our inside defence and we suffered too many missed one-on-one tackles. We scrambled extremely well though.

"They are the best attacking team we have played against this year, so overall we did well to keep them out. We should have been 20 points up at halftime and that would have ended the match and taken the crowd and emotion out of it. The second half didn’t go according to plan, but the guys showed a lot of guts. The fact that we can win ugly in a hostile environment was pleasing," he said.