Maties still need polishing
Maties ran in three tries and conceded just one – due to a Jimmy Mpailane intercept try just before half-time – and while Fourie was happy with his side's defensive work, he feels their attacking effectiveness needs to be addressed.
"We need to improve finishing the opportunities we create. We had the same thing against Tuks in the opening round. We are not effective enough when getting into the opposition's 22, so a lot of our emphasis will be placed on that aspect of the game.
"We had a lot of opportunities in the first half that we didn't convert. We had a lot of play inside their [Pukke] 22 which we didn't score from, so we had our chances but I am satisfied with the result and performance.
"We would have liked to have scored another try but we are not that disappointment [in achieving a four-try bonus point] as we wanted to win the game and anything more would have been a bonus.
"It was a great performance defensively and I am sure there will be a lot of sore bodies. That was one area that I felt we lacked in the first two games, so they stepped up in a big way and showed a lot of attitude and guts," Fourie told rugby365.com.
While Fourie may feel that they need to be more clinical with taking their opportunities, he was more than satisfied with the improvement his side has shown.
"We knew that we had to put in a complete performance to give ourselves a good chance to beat Pukke and I am happy that the guys delivered on the field.
"We spoke about a complete performance in the lead up to the game and that was where we focussed our attention – on getting everything right on the night. The one thing we wanted to do was stamp our authority on the set-pieces and I think it worked quite well as he had a good scrummaging performance in both halves," he added.
Maties will have a nervy week ahead of them as they prepare to take on the NMMU-Madibaz at the Danie Craven Stadium as two of their players left the field with concussion.
Scrumhalf Paul de Wet was substituted just after half-time while outside centre Kyle Steyn was forced off the field 10 minutes into the second half.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
@Tauriq365
@rugby365com
