Fleck encouraged by George display

In what was their first pre-season friendly of the year the DHL Stormers outscored their hosts by six tries to two in an entertaining match in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Outeniqua Park.

Although the DHL Stormers coach acknowledged that there are still some areas to work on ahead of the 2016 Vodacom SupeRugby season, he was especially pleased with the positive attacking intent shown by his young squad.

“I was very pleased with the performance, it was our first game and everything we have been working on came through, so it was a step in right direction and everyone got a decent amount of game time.

“There is still plenty to work on and there were mistakes, but credit to SWD, they put us under pressure at the breakdown and tested our contact skills. It is never easy to play there and they contributed towards a good game.

“At this stage don’t mind mistakes, I just wanted to see intent and we certainly showed that,” he told www.iamastormer.com

Having had a defensive session against UCT the week before, the focus for the clash with the Eagles was to sharpen the DHL Stormers’ attacking game and they showed some impressive finishing with Kurt Coleman, Nizaam Carr and Khanyo Ngcukana all crossing for tries whilst the speedy Leolin Zas grabbed a hat-trick.

“We were focused on attack, and the goals we set ourselves we achieved in terms of a good ball in hand approach and conditioning wise.

“We left a few tries out there, but we didn’t go for the corner or use our maul. We took 10 quick taps which showed the intent of the team in their general attacking game,” Fleck added.

Although they conceded two tries early in the second half, Fleck was pleased with the way his relatively inexperienced team responded to secure a comfortable victory in the end.

“I was happy with the defence as well, but there is still lots to work on and we are still evolving and improving as a team,” he said.