DHL Stormers can keep improving
Although happy with his team’s bonus point win against the Vodacom Bulls at DHL Newlands on Saturday, DHL Stormers Head Coach Robbie Fleck wants to see his side keep improving.
The hosts outscored the team from Pretoria by three tries to nil in the second half, to seal a convincing 33-9 victory and get their 2016 Vodacom Super Rugby campaign off to an encouraging start, but Fleck wants to ensure that they keep their feet firmly on the ground.
The next challenge for Fleck’s charges is a trip to Bloemfontein next week to face a dangerous Toyota Cheetahs outfit, and they will certainly not be taking anything for granted heading into that clash.
“Obviously it is nice to get off to a start like this, but we have still got lots to do, it is still the first round and we are going to work incredibly hard to keep improving every week.
“There are still a few work-ons, we are going to Bloemfontein next week and we haven’t won there in two years, so that is our focus.
“The most important thing is that these guys relax and enjoy this moment, ut come Monday they have got to come charging in with one point in mind and that is to get a win in Bloem,” said Fleck.
Although his side held a slender 9-6 lead at the half-time break, Fleck said that he was always confident that the momentum was with his team.
“We were very confident at half-time, we felt that the game was swinging our way. We a;ways knew it was going to be tough in that first half and credit to the Bulls – they came and put us under pressure with their kicking game,” he said.
The DHL Stormers boss lauded the impact of his replacements, as the likes of co-captain Frans Malherbe, Scarra Ntubeni, JC Janse van Rensburg, Siya Kolisi and JD Schickerling all made major contributions to their forward dominance in the final stages of the game.
“The tight five did exceptionally well and the fact that we have got Springboks on the bench that can come on and make an impact makes a huge difference for our team.
“Credit to Frans [Malherbe] and his leadership, we made good decisions at scrum-time and we really started to get that dominance in the second half,” he said.
Apart from their set-piece dominance, perhaps the most satisfying part of the performance was the fact that the DHL Stormers managed to prevent the visitors from scoring a try, which Fleck said was decisive in clinching the bonus point in the end.
“The bonus point win is because of our defence, again our defence was exceptional. We always felt that they were going to test us and I felt that we defended exceptionally well.
“We are trying to create a situation where we are competing, whether that is on the deck, in our defence, in the tackle or in the line-outs or scrum-time – we want that ball back,” he said.
