Burger praises DHL Newlands Faithful

DHL Stormers stalwart Schalk Burger praised the influence of the DHL Newlands Faithful following the 33-9 victory over the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday.

More than 40 000 spectators packed into the famous stadium, as the DHL Stormers got their 2016 Vodacom Super Rugby campaign off to an encouraging start with a bonus point victory over the visitors from Pretoria.

Burger said that the DHL Newlands Faithful helped create a ‘special’ atmosphere as the home side scored three tries after half-time to pull away from the Vodacom Bulls.

“Newlands is a special place, and thank you for the fans that turned out. I think in the rest of the world rugby crowds are dwindling, but certainly not here.

“It was one of those games on the bus as you turn past all the hot dog stands you could feel there was a good energy,” he said.

While encouraged by the second-half display, Burger pointed out that there is still room for improvement in what is a lengthy competition.

“We couldn’t have started on a better note without getting ahead of ourselves. We have still got a long competition ahead of us and we know that.

“This is a good starting point for us, but I think we can still improve. We want to improve week by week and build into this competition,” he added.

Co-captain Frans Malherbe was one of the players who came off the replacements bench to make a significant impact, but he pointed out that a lot of the hard work had been done up front by the starting line-up who set the game up for the convincing finish.

“A lot of credit has to go to the starters who laid the platform for us to put the finishing punch in. It was very tight up front and we knew it was going to be like that in the first half,” he said.

Malherbe added that the rolling maul which saw Scarra Ntubeni crash over for the final try was a special moment that will live long in his memory.

“It was awesome, when we started getting momentum it felt like a little jog. I was just hoping tht we didn’t fall over our own feet, luckily we didn’t and it was probably one of the nicest mauls you will see at Newlands,” he said.