He also felt that the rolling maul will be a big attacking weapon for the Stormers, much like it was for WP.

"Matthew Proudfoot showed how he coached that and Luke Watson was one of the top try-scorers in the Currie Cup, mostly through the mauls.

"We will use that as a weapon and that is where tight fives and forwards get confidence - scrums and mauling gives you confidence."

Erasmus said that having built up some good momentum through the Currie Cup, after a rather disastrous Super 14 campaign, realistic expectations would be for the Stormers to reach the semifinals.

"If we can continue to build on the Currie Cup form, then there is no reason why we can't get to the [Super 14] semifinals.

"We played the Bulls [in the Currie Cup semifinals] that won the Super 14 Final easily, so if we can continue to build on that [performance against the Bulls in the Currie Cup semifinal] - continue to get better - then I would be really happy."

The Stormers boss admitted that he made a mistake last year of treating the Currie Cup and Super 14 as two different competitions and that transition was not as smooth.

"This year we got much better continuity from the Super 14 going into the Currie Cup.

"We will strive to get it as close to possible as Allister [Coetzee] did it in this Currie Cup, as it almost worked.

"Obviously we are disappointed at not being in the Final, but if you look on the field and how the guys reacted to situations you will see the progress.

"Just look at the challenges Allister faced: losing Jean de Villiers, [Gcobani] Bobo going overseas, Brian Mujati leaving for Northampton], Schalk [Britz] moving abroad, then losing Adriaan Fondse [to injury], then Willem de Waal and Conrad Jantjes [all to injury].

"Looking at that I believe this team is growing.

"As an example: being 0-12 down against the Bulls [in the semifinal] and coming back. I've seen Province [Stormers] teams who conceded 75 points against the Bulls. It could so easily have happened, but the guys fought back and kept structure. We are definitely on the up and I think there is enough growth."

He said they are striving towards the calm and collected approach the Bulls showed in major games this year.

"Apart from the seven penalties we conceded, and Morne Steyn's long range effort [to win the game], their cool heads won the game - especially those first 20 minutes we were too frantic.

"They [the Bulls] got a yellow card and we were playing the dumb rugby. Allister got them to settle down and they fought back.

"If we can get more of our players in that position [to have the experience] it will be great.

"I know it is a cliche, but they [the Bulls] have done it in the World Cup, in the Super 14, in the Tri-Nations, and against the B&I Lions. If we can get that experience it will be good for us. Just look at a guy like Gio Aplon, he's been there for a few seasons now - look how he handled the big occasion.

"We are striving towards keeping these guys together.

"Again, we are only brining in three new singings into this team - only Lionel Cronje, Bryan Habana and Jaque Fourie - there is really some continuity now and not a lot of new guys coming into the system."