Stormers coach Robbie Fleck says the yellow card to captain Siya Kolisi led to his team falling like a house of cards in their match against the Reds on Saturday.
With the scorecard reading 0-0 in the 39th minute, Kolisi was sin-binned for not rolling away as the two teams entered the break.
When they returned for the second half, the Reds scored two quick tries against a Stormers team without their captain and took control of the encounter.
Fleck explains: “The yellow card was critical and credit must go to the Reds, they capitalised on that opportunity.
MANY ERRORS: Coach Robbie Fleck. Photo: Chris Rocco/Backpagepix.
“We defended poorly and we’re not proud of the effort in terms of that second half - too many errors, missed tackles.
“We’ve been pretty good in the first two games [on tour against the Hurricanes and Blues].
“And if we played well enough [against the Reds], we would have backed ourselves to win. But we didn’t play well and didn’t deserve to win.
“Now it’s about picking up the pieces and how we react [in our last match against the Rebels this week].”