Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Dobson rings changes for Province pack
IT should be another walk in the park for Western Province when the SuperSport Rugby Challenge champions take on Border in a South Section match at the Buffalo City Stadium in East London today (3pm kickoff).
Province have yet to have their colours lowered in the competition that was established last year to replace the Vodacom Cup.
The Cape side are on a 11- game winning run after opening their defence of the title last weekend with an easy away bonus- point win over hosts the Eastern Province Elephants.
Now they face a plucky rival who should never be underestimated on home turf.
“It’s a tricky place to play up there,” said WP coach John Dobson.
“Last year Border were very competitive in this tournament.
“They’ve had some off-thefield issues which I think means they haven’t trained as much as they liked.
“But they gave Boland a hard time till deep into that game last week, their pack very direct and physical.
“We had some goals in terms of stats and will be looking to improve from last weekend’s performance even though it was a great start for us, the focus being on our intensity and contact, and our phases where I would like to see us attack more.
“I think we weren’t quite as good at scrum time even though we have a great front row, and we saw Border scrum Boland.
“We’ve had two enforced changes at lock due to injury and niggles, so the new locks are Ruben de Villiers and Marno Redelinhuys, who’s been quite exciting for Maties at No8,” continued Dobson.
“We rested Edwill van der Merwe for the opening round because he played just about every minute for Maties in the Varsity Cup, so it’s great to have him back and starting on the right wing.
And then we Dan du Plessis, who has played Super Rugby, back from injury warming the bench.”