There will be no complacency in the Stormers' ranks when they face the Ospreys in a United Rugby Championship clash in Cape Town on Friday, forwards coach Rito Hlungwani said.
After thrashing Leinster 35-0 in their opening game at DHL Stadium, the Stormers are determined to deliver another clinical display (kickoff 7pm).
The Stormers led 6-0 at half-time against Leinster, but pulled away from the visitors with four second-half tries to secure a bonus-point win.
Stefan Ungerer, Evan Roos, Ruan Ackermann and Jurie Matthee all scored tries for last year's quarter-finalists.
Matthee ended with a personal tally of 20 points after also kicking three penalties and three conversions.
“The big thing for this week is improvement,” Hlungwani said.
“What can we improve? Where can we be better? That is our mindset.
"There are small things we didn’t do well against Leinster and we want to fix those things, while also building on what worked well.
"Things like our timing in the lineout, how we link up with the backline — those aspects usually improve the more you play together. But we know we could’ve been more clinical.
“We want to have more than one or two ways of scoring tries.
"At the end of the day, it’s about putting points on the board. If the maul is working, we’ll use it. But we also want to attack on the counter or from starter moves.
“The Ospreys are a team that never go away — just look at their performance in the loss against the Bulls.
We can’t take them lightly, so for us it’s all about improving on our last performance.
"We’ll be ready for a tough battle up front."
The Cape side has been hit by pre-season injuries, but front row reinforcements in Scotland international Oli Kebble and Sazi Sandi, as well as World Cup winner Deon Fourie, are set to return to action.
“Marcel Theunissen has a laceration to the face, but he should be fine as far as I know,” Hlungwani said.
“Everyone is fit. Some guys are returning to full fitness. Oli Kebble, Sazi Sandi and Deon Fourie are all returning to training.”
Stormers’ new recruit Ntuthuko Mchunu is also set to be fit ahead of their European tour which starts against the Scarlets on October 10.
Stormers coach John Dobson said he was excited about the potential of the Stormers' forward pack.
“The scrum culture is so important," he said.
"This time last year, we had guys like Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe, and now we have Olly Reid, Zach Porthen and Vernon Matongo.
“The culture of scrumming is remarkable, and we played without Tuks Mchunu, Ali Vermaak, Sazi Sandi and Franna Malherbe.
“Leinster had 13 internationals and we were four internationals with 13 Test caps. It’s remarkable that we have got that sort of depth in those youngsters.”
“I am super proud of captain Ruhan Nel and the team. We had a plan, but it had to be a different plan from the normal Stormers plan.
“If you work out how our game model is, it had to be about hard work, intensity, physicality, sticking to a plan and I’m super proud and grateful to them because that was a magic performance."
The Herald
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