Following the nightmare at Ellis Park, Western Province coach John Dobson has conceded that his team were “in a tough situation now” to reach the Currie Cup semi-finals.
Province conceded a massive 51 points in just 58 minutes on Friday night and went down 58-32 after giving away eight tries and scoring four in a fast-paced game that saw the Lions come back into playoff contention after losing to the Blue Bulls last week.
When Kwagga Smith crossed for his first try, the Lions led 51-13 and Province’s humiliation was complete. And while Dobson is correct to point fingers at his defence, a number of the selections have also been questionable during the current campaign.
Yes, WP are missing the likes of Nizaam Carr, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, JD Schickerling, Oli Kebble and Scarra Ntubeni upfront, as well as Dan du Plessis and Huw Jones in the backline, which has made life difficult for Dobson when he sits down to pick his team.
But continuing with Chris van Zyl as captain when he has battled to make any impact as a player and leader is hard to understand, while installing both Rynhardt Elstadt and Jurie van Vuuren in the loose trio when they are better suited to No 4 lock didn’t make sense either, especially against a quick Lions back row of Smith, Ruan Ackermann and Fabian Booysen.
Also, bringing in average players such as fullback Scott van Breda, scrumhalf Dewaldt Duvenage and Stefan Willemse to WP when there are more promising options such as Godlen Masimla, Grant Hermanus, and SA Under-20 stars Edwill van der Merwe and Zain Davids, sends the wrong message to the host of talented youngsters who have excelled at age-group levels over the years.
And despite having nearly 100 clubs in Western Province, very few club stars outside of Maties and UCT are granted playing opportunities at Currie Cup level. WP are clearly in crisis on the field, and the net needs to be spread much wider than is currently the case.
“We were well beaten. Defensively, we were atrocious, absolutely atrocious. I mean, we were giving away three or four 90-metre tries. Our defence, we were too tight, we slipped too many tackles, we didn’t work hard enough. I thought the rest of our game was fine. Defensively, we were really, really poor,” Dobson said at the post-match press conference at Ellis Park.
“I think it’s going to be tough now (to reach the semi-finals). We need a couple of results to go our way and we need five points from each of our remaining games. We are up against it now. The Lions will get a lot of confidence from this, and we’re in a tough situation now.”
Outside of the defensive problems, though, Dobson surprisingly felt that Province played well in all the other areas. “I was happy with our plans. It’s just that we went 23-13 to 37-13 just like that, and it was very hard to come back from that at Ellis Park. The rest of our game was good, but defensively, we were very poor,” he said.
“But one thing I will give my team credit for is that when the message went on that we needed to get two more tries (for the bonus point), and we got those. But it’s a very upset change-room and we didn’t expect this. We are probably a better team than this, but on the night, we were well beaten.”
Province will have to pick themselves up quickly as they host the Pumas at Newlands next Saturday (5.10pm kickoff), where they should have Carr back from his shoulder injury. The classy No 8 started training last week in Bellville, and his team need him to inspire a comeback if WP are to have any chance of reaching the playoffs.
Dobson should also ask Carr to take over the captaincy, as he is the most senior player in the team and has led WP before in the Currie Cup with great success.
The coach will hope that he can call on the likes of Jones and Du Plessis in midfield as well.
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