High-flying Cape side refuse to blink

IN the admittedly young history of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, DHL Western Province has only ever looked like losing once.

They have been given the hurry up before, notably by the Border Bulldogs and the SWD Eagles last year, but their 23-21 win against the Boland Cavaliers in their third game of this season was the first time they actually looked defeat in the eye and still didn’t blink.

John Dobson’s men were trailing with five minutes to go and needed a last-minute penalty by flyhalf Josh Stander to rescue what has now extended to a 15-game winning streak for Province in the competition.

Forwards coach Hanyani Shimange’s explanation of how they keep the streak going is quite telling.

“We don’t even really discuss it and to be honest the game against Boland felt like a loss,” he said. “But it’s nothing we actively discuss because we’re not out there chasing some record. We just try to turn up week in and week out, and I think we quite enjoy playing out in the communities. For example we’ve got a bus trip back to Cape Town, like the old days.

“So we enjoy that rather than focusing on some unbeaten record – that will take care of itself.”

Despite the unbeaten record remaining, the former Springbok hooker said the competition had been closer this year: “It is competitive. When we played Border there was this flippin’ wind and we were only a try ahead at halftime with the wind.

“The different environments do make it challenging. Sometimes you go to stadiums that aren’t closed off, so there’s a big wind factor. But we’re a second year into it so we’re probably better prepared of what to expect.”

There was a time during the Boland game when they felt they weren’t prepared for what was unfolding.

“We were crap against Boland. We had six attacking opportunities in their 22 in the first half and we butchered all of them. Boland were good and they sort of outmuscled us and they’ve got good line speed and put us under pressure. They came at us with intensity and I think on the day they probably deserved to win but we got away with it.”

The discouraging thing for the rest of the opposition in the South Pool was that Shimange said he didn’t see them being ambushed like that again, something backed up by their 50-3 (15-3 at halftime) win over the Eagles at the Oudtshoorn Festival this past weekend.

“The Boland game was the big wakeup call for us. We were down with five minutes to go. For us the big thing is no matter what comes there are certain standards we have to achieve as a team.

“We don’t want to drop our intensity because if we qualify for the playoffs it’s the Sharks, the Cheetahs and the Pumas we get to play. So we have to make sure that we can match that intensity and then take it from there.”