Scots not on Vermeulen's mind
The Springbok No.8, who was influential in his return to Test rugby in the win against Samoa last week, said that he prefers to concentrate on his own team's performance rather than worry too much about the opposition.
"I don't really go into papers as most of the guys know, so I don't really know how the Scottish team looks.
"I don't really care about the opposition, it is a day on the field. When you go out there it is every man for himself and you have got to go out there and play as a team.
"The main focus is how we want to play and what we want to achieve," he said.
As one of the senior players in the Springbok squad, Stormers captain Vermeulen will play a leadership role alongside new captain Fourie du Preez.
He said that there is no doubt the veteran scrumhalf is the right man for the job considering how well he understands coach Heyneke Meyer, and added that he will get plenty of support from the senior players in the side.
"He [Du Preez] is one of the guys that has come a long way with Heyneke [Meyer], when he started Heyneke was the coach at the Bulls so they know each other very well and he knows how to execute the coach's plans.
"That is the perfect guy for the job and we have still got a lot of good leaders in the team that can back him up. He doesn't speak a lot but when he does he really means what he is saying.
"You have got guys like Schalk [Burger], Ruan [Pienaar] and Bismarck [Du Plessis] who hve been captains so it is nice to have that balance to be playing under Fourie," he said.
Regarding concerns over the Springboks' inability to finish games off this year, Vermeulen said that it comes down to discipline which has been a big focus for the team this week.
"We had a chat about that [finishing games] and that is something we definitely need to work on, we still haven't figured out what the problem is, is it fatigue or a lack of effort?
"I think most of it comes down to discipline and last week we also gave away 15 penalties so we definitely want to get that down," he explained.
Although spirits in the camp have been higher this week after the victory against Samoa, Vermeulen warned that they have not achieved anything significant yet.
"It has been a great week for us, after our first week with the loss against Japan it wasn't great, it wasn't a great vibe, it was really quiet in the camp and after Samoa we turned it around.
"We haven't achieved anything yet, we are still in the same position as we were the week before so we still need to grind it out and this is just our next step," he added.
