WP out to avoid horror show
Western Province’s last Currie Cup visit to Ellis Park is not one which they will recall with any fondness.
|||Cape Town - Delighted Western Province fans revelled in the Blue Bulls’ shock exit from the Currie Cup semi-finals at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night. The defending champions were not surprised by their success, and they have plans to upset the form book again on Saturday when they tear into the Golden Lions at Ellis Park in the final (kick-off 1.45pm).
Beating the odds often comes at great cost to the victors’ emotional reserves. Wales held nothing back to beat England at the World Cup, but they then scored just six points combined in the second half of clashes with Australia and South Africa.
Although the Bulls were favoured to advance from the first Currie Cup semi-final, WP coach John Dobson said that what many view as an unexpected win did nothing to slake the team’s thirst for another trophy.
“The determination of Juan de Jongh, and the energy and belief that he brings to this group, is not something to be underestimated,” Dobson said of the WP captain.
The veteran midfielder introduced a “back-to-back” theme at the start of the campaign to inspire Province to produce consistent performances and, ultimately, defend the title.
The implied expectation was, from the outset, that WP would contest the final, and this explains why De Jongh and his teammates took the win at Loftus in their stride.
“Five minutes after the whistle went it was all about the focus for the final,” said the 14-test Springbok.
“Play-off wins are never easy, and we knew it would be difficult at Loftus. But for us, we want to improve on last year and the only way to do that is to win the Currie Cup again.”
“The guys didn’t go out after the game,” Dobson concurred. “There was no sense of having achieved anything, our goal was to make the final so there wasn’t a massive celebration.”
“We know what it’s going to take to win the competition because of what happened two weeks ago at Ellis Park,” added De Jongh. “It’s just important that we fix what happened that day and, if our preparation goes well and we bring our A-game, we can go back-to-back.”
Province produced a C-grade performance in a 62-32 reverse against the Lions. Dobson put it down to a confluence of errors that won’t be repeated this week.
“It was a horror show at Ellis Park,” he said. “The amount of tackles we missed, the amount of balls we dropped, our kicking game misfired, we gave up 21 points from our restarts... it was a perfect storm and I can’t see it happening again.”
The defending champions also conceded nine tries in that match, the most by a WP team since 1992.
However, the Free State Cheetahs ran the Lions close in the second semi-final and Province, reinforced in recent weeks by the return of stalwarts such as De Jongh, Rynhardt Elstadt and Jano Vermaak from injury, have taken the lessons on board.
“We know what we must do to beat the Lions up at Ellis Park,” said the WP captain. “We’ve experienced something two weeks ago and it’s time to show that we’ve learnt from our mistakes and rectify (that).”
Dobson has highlighted the scrum as an area that needs particular attention this week.
“Our game management is going to be critical, the breakdown, defence and I just want a fair shot at scrum time,” he said.
“The Lions have got the rub of the green when it comes to scrum penalties and that’s something we need to sort out this week. It’s a key flashpoint in this game.
“In any other aspects of the game you can get beaten - the lineout, the breakdown or the maul - but if you’re beaten in the scrum, you’re penalised and sometimes carded.
“Western Province and the Lions have had the dominant scrums in the Currie Cup this year.
“At scrum time they’ve got 59 penalties awarded to them and 17 against; we’ve got 27 for and 21 against. So they’ve got a 42 difference in penalties for a strong scrum and we’ve got six.”
Dobson would have mentioned these concerns yesterday when he held the customary pre-match meeting with Rasta Rasivhenge, who has been appointed to his first Currie Cup final.
Scarra Ntubeni (calf) and Chris Cloete (knee) have not been cleared to play this week, while centre Johnny Kotze (knee) will have to prove his fitness before the team is announced on Thursday.
Cape Argus