The Stormers are running away with the Africa 1 Super Rugby conference even though their performances have been less than convincing this season.

Since demolishing the Bulls in round one‚ the Stormers laboured to a win over the Jaguares‚ and untidily saw off the Kings.

Last Saturday they needed a late rally to beat the Sunwolves in Singapore.

Those were the three bottom teams in the 2016 South African conference standings‚ so it’s premature to become carried away with the Stormers’ performances from that perspective.

But Robbie Fleck’s side are also undefeated after four games and head Africa 1 on 17 log points with the Cheetahs second on nine points after five matches.

The Bulls have just five points from four games and the Sunwolves are bottom with a lone point from their five matches.

The fact that Stormers are already well in control of the automatic play-off berth that comes with topping the Africa 1 conference says more about the mediocre to poor standard of the opposition than it does about their own performances.

The Stormers trailed the Sunwolves 24-7 late in the first half of their match in Singapore last weekend and rallied to win 44-31 in a less than convincing display.

But they did field an understrength team and showed character and composure to fight back from a difficult situation.

Tougher tests are ahead with matches against the five New Zealand franchises to come‚ but the chasing pack also have those matches in front of them.

Fleck chose to put a positive spin on the Singapore escape and perhaps it is a sign of how much the team has progressed.

Last year they drew the corresponding fixture‚ and this time they won it going away despite struggling for an hour.

“We had a good chat at halftime‚ there was no panic we just had to get back to what we had planned to do‚” Fleck said.

“We had to adapt a little bit because of the way that the Sunwolves were playing.

"It was a pretty powerful performance in the second half for a good win in the end in tough conditions and tough circumstances. It is a young group and everyone played their role.

"Once we got going in that second half our plans started to come through quite nicely and for a young group that is hugely positive.

"We adapted extremely well and enforced the plan brilliantly in that second half.”

Fleck said that the way the Stormers fought back against a tough Sunwolves outfit showed that they have got a positive mindset.

"The Sunwolves are a dangerous team and they have improved every week‚ so for us to travel here and win was important for us‚” Fleck said.

"There were quite a few players who had to play out of position and we introduced two new players in Cobus Wiese and Caylib Oosthuizen‚ so we are building capacity.

"This performance shows that we can play various gameplans and for such a young group that is massively positive.

"We are coming back a satisfied group and the fact that we showed that we can fight back from being so far down is important.

"It shows that this group is working hard and they have got that mental capacity to win a game under difficult circumstances.”

Wing Seabelo Senatla has a foot injury while flank Rynhardt Elstadt (ankle) and prop Wilco Louw (sternum) are also in doubt for next week’s clash against the Cheetahs in Cape Town.

A full assessment will be made when they return to Cape Town on Monday. - TMG Digital