Province’s victory a delight for Dobson
Golovkin won the fight,” Atlas said. “At the end of the day it was the wrong decision.”
Golovkin was tentative early as Alvares dictated the terms, but the Kazakh got more aggressive as the bout progressed.
But Alvares landed more body punches, 46-6 by the official count, and more power punches, even as Golovkin landed more overall punches.
Both fighters were suitably bloodied by the end of a bruising encounter, after Alvares had somehow absorbed a series of blows to the head and chin, while Golovkin’s puffy face offered proof that it had been a two-way street.
The fight came after an acrimonious weigh-in during which Alvares almost head-butted Golovkin.
The bad blood between the pair has grown since Alvarez was temporarily suspended for testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol.
But they embraced at the end of Saturday’s fight as the crowed waited in anticipation of the judges’ verdict. WESTERN Province’s 65-38 Currie Cup thrashing of the Golden Lions was amazing. Add in there the fact that the massive victory was achieved at Ellis Park, and that result becomes even more impressive.
The Highveld venue isn’t one that has been too kind to the defending champions in recent years, so ending the Lions’ unbeaten run i in superb fashion was quite a feat.
Following the game, coach John Dobson said that it was great to have two top attacking teams battle it out. “We executed our plan of how we wanted to play and we got the result we wanted, but having said that I think there were a couple of turning points in the first half, and that’ll put a young team like the Lions under pressure,” Dobson said following the game.
“The Lions put us under a lot of pressure defensively and we knew with those steppers it would be the case. And I think it’s fantastic that you have that sort of attacking talent going up against our attacking talent.
“We wanted to play a certain way, it’s tough up at Ellis Park. This scoreline is a complete reversal of what we’ve had the last three years, so for us it’s a massive turnaround.”
Putting 65 points on a team like the Lions isn’t something to be disappointed with.
But the way his team slipped off a few tackles is something Dobson would have liked to see less of and will ensure is rooted out going forward. “We weren’t overly thrilled with our defence. We knew about the steppers and we knew we’d have to box them in, and I think sometimes we didn’t do that very well. I also think we gave them too many linebreaks and our maul defence can improve.”
Dobson made use of rolling substitutions as early as the first half, and while it’s something the WP mentor admitted he maybe hadn’t used to full effect earlier in the season, he was happy with how it worked in Johannesburg.
“It has been one of those things I haven’t been particularly clever with this season. It is one of the things we identified. This week we wanted to be cleverer and it is was not ideal to have your captain off at 30 minutes. But to get him back on fresh to close the game was fantastic.”