Province have an ‘unstoppable’ look about them
IT’S HARD to foresee any other team but Western Province lifting the Currie Cup trophy this season.
John Dobson’s team have been in hot form and currently top the standings with 25 points and a points difference of 136, while the Sharks, who are in second spot, are on 21 log points with a points difference of 30.
WP need to get just one point against the Blue Bulls in Pretoria this weekend to retain their top spot, and even if the Sharks bag five points, they will have to run in a massive score to overtake the defending champions on the standings.
WP have been completely destructive in all five of their games, and they’ve put 50 on their opposition in three of those outings (against the Pumas, Lions and Sharks), while they kept the Cheetahs scoreless in testing conditions at Newlands in their opener (32-0). Against Griquas (3812) the Cape side still ran in six tries to claim the bonus-point win in a match that Dobson said felt like a loss as they followed up a brilliant first-half with a mostly-defensive, error-ridden second stanza.
The Sharks were expected to pose a real challenge for WP, but the way Province went about chucking them aside in the 50-28 romp has put an ‘unstoppable’ tag on the defending champions.
There’s obviously not much that WP have done wrong until now, and they can also expect to benefit from the addition of the likes of tighthead Wilco Louw, hooker Bongi Mbonambi, loose forward Sikhumbuzo Notshe and flyhalf Damian Willemse, who haven’t racked up too much game time while on Springbok duty, while Damian de Allende could also be in the mix.
The current WP side have of course built incredible momentum over the last few weeks, but seeing that the Boks’ fringe players will have this weekend to settle in before they head into the semi-finals, the add-ons can hardly be seen as a disruption in terms of continuity.