Stormers coach Allister Coetzee is satisfied with his players following the 26-19 win over the Bulls in Polokwane on Saturday.

The Super Rugby warm-up fixture saw tries from Demetri Catrakilis and Scott van Breda, and two from Springbok flank Siya Kolisi.

‘I’m pleased with where we are as a team after our first pre-season match,’ Coetzee said on the Stormers website.

‘It was a good test for both teams. We ticked a few boxes, but it also showed us what we still need to work on.’

Coetzee emphasised that the set pieces from the Stormers were the strong point of the evening.

‘Our conditioning was good, our scrumming was good and our line-out was good in the first half until [lock] Ruan Botha went off. That disrupted us a bit.’

‘However, a big thing for me was the resilience shown by the team – they played for the full 80 minutes and secured the win two minutes from time.

‘We never kicked for goal – except for conversions – and leading up to our last try the players stuck to their guns and kept hold of the ball instead of kicking for goal.’

The Stormers' only negative was the injury to Botha, who left the field after taking a knock to the head, but Coetzee said that it was likely to be a concussion, at worst.

The Bulls suffered a serious-looking knee injury to loose forward Arno Botha.

Photo: Anne Laing/HSM Images