What makes Stormers scrum tick

 

The four-times capped Springbok has had his share of injuries in recent years, but he has been a standout performer for the Cape-based franchise in the set pieces this year.

 

The 24-year-old said they will be looking to continue the trend in their Round 15 Super Rugby clash against the Rebels at Newlands on Saturday. 

 

"Myself, [Steven] Kitshoff and Scarra [Siyabonga Ntubeni] have been playing for a few years together now," Malherbe said.

 

"It is a lot of hard work in training and I think it is the process of putting in the hard yards over time. It is not something that just happened this year, we been working hard last year as well and I think we reaping the fruits now.

 

"It is very good to have a dominant scrum, like we been having in the past few weeks.

 

"It helps a lot in the game, we got a lot of penalties awarded to us at scrum time. 

 

"It puts you in a good position territory wise. If you on the 10 metre line and get the scrum penalty, you kick it 40 metres down field and then you are close to the tryline of the opposition and in a good position to score a try."

 

The Stormers' scrum dominance is also due in no small part to the arrival of Vincent Koch from the Pumas in the pre-season.

 

The strongly-built prop has added much needed depth to the front row and shone in the games he has played so far. 

 

"He is very good for competition," Malherbe said, adding: "He is very big and a very good player and the competition brings out the best in you.

 

"I really like it and I know he has my back. He is a really talented guy."

 

Teams who generally dominate the set pieces tend to score more tries, which has not been the case for the Stormers this year.

 

The team has only scored 21 tries so far this season – the lowest out of all 15 teams year,.

 

However, it is something that Malherbe is not concerned about. 

 

"I think we are scoring more tries than we did in the past and secondly I don't think you can relate the two to each other. 

 

"Tries come from all sorts of plays.

 

The scrum is obviously a big weapon for us and it has been going well, but tries will come from other areas as well," Malherbe added.

 

While the Stormers are basking in their scrum supremacy, they have not been so adept at their line-out play recently losing plenty of possession on their own throw in.

 

It is something that Stormers' forwards coach Matthew Proudfoot has spent a lot of time on during his team's bye week. 

 

"I think we had three particularly bad games at line-out time this season," Proudfoot said.

 

"The Lions game in Johannesburg, the Cheetahs game and the Bulls at home. We were not clinical in those games as we were in others in the season. It is more about consistency.

 

"The line-out against the Brumbies was good, although it was not as accurate as I wanted to be.

 

"We have also not been mauling as well as we have in the past. That is something we spent a lot of time on.

 

"The games will get tighter in this part of the season and the accuracy has to improve and that is what we working on," said Proudfoot.

 

The forwards coach is wary of the threat the Rebels pose this weekend.

 

The Aussie team have won four of their last six games and are looking a much improved side from the Melbourne outfits in recentseasons.

 

"Defensively they have been outstanding this season and have been very physical.  They got good line speed and then they are physical. It will be difficult against them. 

 

"I have been really impressed with their scrum on the opponent’s ball. Their patience and discipline in the opponent’s ball has been really good.

 

"We know the task that lies ahead of us. We know how the Rebels play, we watched them for the last few weeks. We got to improve our first phase and our physicality If we can do that then I am sure we can match their big players," Proudfoot added.