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Cape Town - Although satisfied with his team's 43-7 victory against the Cheetahs in Harare, Stormers Head Coach Robbie Fleck knows that there is still some hard work ahead.
Fleck's charges scored seven tries in their first warm-up game of the season at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Saturday and the Stormers boss said that while it was encouraging to see some results from their hard work in pre-season, he is certainly not under any illusions about where his team are at.
"It is a good start for us, all the goals we set ourselves for this weekend were achieved.
"We saw a few glimpses of the hard work we did in the pre-season, but we are certainly not there yet and we have still got a long way to go.
"We scored some decent tries from turnover ball and it is always nice when you see some results from what you have been working on.
"As management there were a few things that excited us, but there are definitely aspects that we still need to work on.
"There are still four weeks until our opening game against the Bulls and there is still a lot of work to do," he said.
Fleck added that his team has built on the foundations they laid with a change in approach last year, but there is still a lot for them to work on.
"It was really encouraging to see that what we started working on last year came through strongly as well. It was always going to take time for that change in approach to take hold so it is great that we are seeing the fruits of that now.
"It is now back to the drawing board, we will review the game and look at what needs to be worked on and see where we are at.
"It is now an opportunity for us to give some feedback to the players and knuckle down and get back to work.
"It is certainly pleasing from the point of view that the stuff we have been working on has come through," he said.
One particularly pleasing aspect of the outing in Harare was that there were no new injuries to report.
"Everyone had a fair bit of gametime and we came away with no injuries, so we are very happy that everyone had an opportunity," Fleck explained.
Fleck said that it was great to see Zimbabwe and the passionate support for the DHL Stormers in their historic first-ever visit to the country.
"It is a great tournament and definitely something that we would look forward to coming back to again. It was great to play here and connect with our fans in Zimbabwe," he said.
The team will now head to Victoria Falls where they will do some sightseeing and some training before heading back to Cape Town on Tuesday.
"We are going to Vic Falls and the guys will have a bit of time off so they can go and experience Vic Falls, but on Monday we are back to work and we will be training and having our reviews," said Fleck.
