De Jongh set to start off bench for WP in Joburg

WESTERN PROVINCE coach John Dobson has got a bit of a selection headache ahead of Friday night’s crucial Currie Cup clash against the Lions at Ellis Park.

Defending champions Province need to beat last year’s finalists – and probably with a bonus point – to keep alive their hopes of hosting a semi-final at Newlands.

WP moved level on points with the second-placed Blue Bulls after a superb second-half display helped them to a 50-19 victory over the Pumas in Cape Town on a in front of 5 410 fans. However, Province are still third in the standings, because they couldn’t improve their points difference sufficiently enough to overtake their fierce rivals from Pretoria.

WP will be boosted by several big-name stars for the clash in Joburg, including captain Juan de Jongh, pictured, who has made a remarkable recovery after suffering a knee injury in WP's second match of the campaign against the Cheetahs.

Dobson said De Jongh was likely to start off the bench because of his long lay-off, and given that the current centre pairing of Huw Jones and Johnny Kotze has come good over the last three weeks.

Kotze set up wing Kobus van Wyk’s try against the Pumas on Saturday by exploding through an outside gap, while Jones always looks a threat with ball in hand.

However, loosehead prop, loose forward and the back three are the positions that Dobson will have to think carefully about this week.

Prop Steven Kitshoff, loose forwards Chris Cloete and Rynhardt Elstadt and fullback Cheslin Kolbe are all likely to be fit for the trip to the Highveld after missing the match against the Pumas.

Oli Kebble again performed well at loosehead and gave the Springbok tighthead prop Vincent Koch a torrid time on Saturday. He probably deserves a start in such a big game because of his contributions in this campaign.

Chris Cloete is a must for the match against the Lions, as WP need his work-rate and his play at the breakdown to counter the Lions’ scavengers around the tackle areas. Elstadt will also provide the physicality needed to get WP some success on the gainline.

On a fast track like Ellis Park, Cheslin Kolbe is also a must. But who do you drop to accommodate him? It seems to be a straight shootout between Dillyn Leyds and Van Wyk, but both have been in fine form in recent weeks.

“There are a couple of tricky decisions this week,” Dobson said.

“I don’t think it will be prudent to start Juan because of the length of his injury, but he will definitely be in the mix for this weekend,” Dobson said.

“I think the other teams are going to go through their injury crisis now, and we have quite a few players back next week. If you take that second-half performance, and you add a Rynhardt Elstadt, Steven Kitshoff, Chris Cloete and Cheslin Kolbe, it’s quite a bit of quality,” Dobson said.

WP scored 35 unanswered points after half-time to put away a spirited Pumas side. The home side took a while to hit their straps, and trailed the Pumas 19-15 at half-time.

In the first half the Pumas physically dominated the home team, while WP’s defending and their lineouts were quite shocking.

But they came back in the second half, after a stern talking-to by Dobson, to extinguish the Pumas’ hopes of an upset.

The WP charge was lead by flyhalf Robert du Preez, who contributed 21 points, which included two tries.

The only negative, though, was veteran scrumhalf Jano Vermaak leaving the field with a groin injury.

“I knew it was going to take time to put the Pumas away, but I didn’t expect us to be so bad in the first half,” Dobson said.

“What was really disappointing was that our lineout malfunctioned. We had a 90 percent success rate this whole season, and that really cost us on the first half. Our defence, our tackling... it was a really poor first half.

'I knew the Pumas will be a threat after last Friday’s high. It came true and it took a real conversation at half-time to get them to respond. And then it was a completely different team that ran out.”