Cape Town - Stormers coach Robbie Fleck was pleased with what he saw from his side in their 29-14 win over the Jaguares at Newlands on Saturday, but he knows that there is a lot to work on ahead of their February 27 Super Rugby opener against the Bulls.
The Stormers scored four tries in the match and were never really threatened, but Fleck said afterwards that a hard couple of weeks remained as his side touched up their final preparations for Super Rugby.
"I think it’s a good start. The chat during the week was that we were facing a good team and I think the way we managed it in that first half was pleasing," Fleck said.
"I think we still need to make better decisions, certainly in our kicking game. We probably pushed it a little bit. There were some good attacking kicks where we put them under pressure but we probably did that a little too much as the game went on.
"Probably defensively in the last 10 minutes of the first half they started to threaten us a little bit with their interplay. There are far more positives than work-ons."
And what were those positives?
"Our scrummaging performance was good, our mauls started to work nicely towards the end," said Fleck.
"Our lineout operated well. We made a number of changes at the end there with some of the young kids … we had hookers playing at flank and we still operated well on the lineouts.
"I thought out breakdown was excellent. It’s something that we’ve really focused on in the last two or three months.
"When we did decide to keep ball in hand we were good, and we put them under pressure."
The Stormers are expected to cut their squad to 32 and also name their Super Rugby captain this week.