Focus on scrums pays off for Stormers

The Cape side destroyed the Rebels at scrum time throughout the 80 minutes, which ultimately laid the platform for their seven-try win.

They are now nine points ahead of the Bulls in Africa Conference One after the Pretoria side went down to the Jaguares in Argentina.

"We worked incredibly hard on our scrumming," Fleck told reporters via teleconference from Perth on Sunday.

"We brought in Pieter de Villiers and over the last couple of weeks we have been working incredibly hard with both Oli [Oliver Kebble] and Vince [Vincent Koch]. 

"It certainly clicked, but by no means are the Rebels a poor scrummaging pack. Our scrum was really effective yesterday and we were certainly up for it. 

"It was an area that we wanted to target and we certainly focussed on it. 

"We were not happy with the way our scrum ended off in the last phase. We were conceding to many penalties - we certainly pride ourselves on our scrummaging and it was not good enough in the last three games, so it was something that was a big focus for us.

"We have to give credit to both Oli and Vince. They were outstanding and along with Bongi [Mbongeni Mbonambi]. it was just a good cohesive effort from the forwards in that regard and they certainly put the Rebels' scrum under immense pressure, which led the way to victory at the end of the day."

The Stormers next play the Western Force in Perth before heading back home to face the Southern Kings at Newlands in the final round.

Fleck said the win in Melbourne was a good start to the final phase of the competition as they look to build some momentum heading into the quarterfinals.

"I think it is important that we build momentum, both on and off the field, and this tour was all about that. 

"The June international window had some sort of effect on the way you plan, but our goals - apart from winning - was to get some momentum and find a bit of form going into the latter stages of this competition. It is important that we started with a good win.

"I think it is important that we find some of the form that we showed in the early stages of this competition and this is a good start. We are not there yet, but we are really pleased with the result and the performance in that second half. 

"It is good for the confidence of the squad and we are in a good place, but certainly we still got a lot of work to do and it is literally all about momentum now and it is important that we keep going." Fleck added.

The Stormers only have one injury concern after the Melbourne match. Loose forward Nizaam Carr suffered a shoulder injury in the win and could miss his team's final tour match against the Force.

"He [Carr] has got a bit of a shoulder injury and he came off for that," said Fleck. "He has been assessed by the medical staff and we will make a call on him tomorrow.

"We got good cover - should he go back [to Cape Town] we will probably look to replace him with a backline player."

By Warren Fortune

@rugby365com