Stormers coach Robbie Fleck was full of praise for his players following their comprehensive 37-20 victory over the Blues at Newlands on Saturday, capping off a 'challenging' week for the Cape Town-based side.
The Stormers returned from an unsuccessful Australasian tour in which they suffered three defeats, and barely trained in the lead-up to the Blues fixture as a 'flu bug ran through both the playing and management staff.
They certainly looked fresh in the first half against the Blues though, before their illness and fatigue issues appeared to take their toll in the second period.
"It was a challenging week in many respects and for us to deliver a performance like that after the tour makes us very happy," Fleck told the team's website.
"We are certainly not there yet, there is still lots for us to do and as a group we acknowledge that. The next challenge for us is to put in another performance like that next week.
"It is great to see that we can respond in this way, certainly the first half it was a good performance from us. We need to learn to play like that for 80 minutes now and every weekend.
"I think we lost our way a little bit in the second half in terms of our work-rate and intensity, but that was to be expected because it was a challenging week with so many of the guys being sick.
"We can take a lot of confidence from this and we can build from this, it is pretty exciting if we do get it right consistently," he said.
Next up for the Stormers is a home match with Australia's Reds on Saturday.