Feeney helping Stormers make better decisions
Feeney, who was an assistant coach at the Blues and was previously head coach of Auckland in the National Provincial Championship, helped Western Province during a 10-day visit during last year's Currie Cup before extending his stay with a three-year contract.
With the Stormers playing the Kiwi franchises in this year's league phase of Super Rugby, it is hoped that Feeney's expertise will be beneficial to the Cape side.
"I am excited by the challenge," Feeney told reporters at the Stormers' pre-season training camp in Hermanus.
"Robbie [Fleck] talked to me about how he wants the team to go forward. How he wants to play and where he wants to take this group excites me.
"I made the decision to come because I thought I got on well with the group and we see rugby in a similar way."
The Stormers looked pedestrian at times on attack during last year's Super Rugby campaign and Feeney believes he has a few ideas to change that this year.
"I have asked a lot of questions and chucked a few ideas around.
"I would like to think there will be a good blend with some of my ideas and some of the ideas of what they have been doing previously.
"We have just been working hard on the small things, the one percenters, especially the decision making with the backs," he added.
Feeney also wants to dispel the notion that New Zealand players are more skilful than South African players.
"It is all about repetition and making sure the players have the confidence to make the decisions," said Feeney.
"It all comes back to execution. With execution, we are looking at the skills, so working hard on our offloading and doing it more often during training.
"Robbie has put a huge emphasis on that in the pre-season. So, hundreds and hundreds of times of repetition, looking at certain things and also the reaction, so that you can do it with your gut feeling in the game and get it right more often than not.
"I don't think New Zealand teams have more x-factor than the South African teams. It is just about us putting more emphasis on it [skills] and putting more time into it."
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