Jean chuffed, but some big WP names ‘lacked work ethic’
JOHN DOBSON loaded his Western Province line-up with Stormers stalwarts for the trip to Port Elizabeth on Saturday, but the survivors of an arduous Super Rugby campaign struggled to take seriously a Currie Cup friendly against the Eastern Province Kings.
“Some of our bigger name players lacked work ethic out there today,” said WP coach John Dobson after his charges faded in the fourth quarter of a 21-18 win.
WP captain Juan de Jongh was one of 14 Stormers in the run-on side, including fullback Cheslin Kolbe, halfbacks Demetri Catrakilis and Nic Groom, and forwards Rynhardt Elstadt, Ruan Botha and Alistair Vermaak, the latter a late replacement for Oli Kebble (flu).
“We were holding on at the end,” Dobson said. “The Kings were very impressive, but I was disappointed with our performance. We made 13 changes (in the second half) but, still, we must be careful about being complacent and thinking that, because we’re Super Rugby’s South African conference champions, it’ll just happen naturally. I can excuse some of the flatness because the players had a very busy (training) week, but, generally, some of them were just a bit too cool for school in some areas.”
Jean de Villiers is clearly relishing being back in action and Dobson had to wait for the final whistle to get the enthusiastic Springbok captain off the field. August 7: Griquas (Kimberley) August 15: Free State (Cape Town) August 22: Blue Bulls (Pretoria) August 28: Free State (Bloemfontein) September 5: Griquas (Cape Town) September 12: Sharks (Durban) September 18: Blue Bulls (Cape Town) September 26: Pumas (Cape Town) October 2: Lions (Joburg) October 9: EP Kings (Cape Town)
Scored after the restart
“He’s very chuffed,” the WP coach said of De Villiers’ recovery progress from a long-term knee injury. “Last week he played and took full contact, and today he got his acceleration going – that was his big work on this week.”
Flyers Kobus van Wyk and Seabelo Senatla accelerated across the line to give the visitors a 14-13 half-time advantage, and WP captain Juan de Jongh scored after the restart; flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis converted the first two strikes and replacement No 10 Kurt Coleman crowned the third.
Prop Maks van Dyk and winger Luther Obi scored for the Kings, while Rondebosch old boy Scott van Breda added eight points with one conversion and a pair of penalties.
“Our biggest concern was defence,” added Dobson. “We let too many linebreaks through. Our big thing was to try and keep the ball but our ball security was poor.”
While the Currie Cup champions have conceded 37 points in two weeks, Dobson and defence coach Paul Treu will digest the key points from two scrimmages over the course of the next fortnight before Province square up against Griquas in Kimberley on Friday, August 7.
De Villiers is expected to be part of the Springbok team that takes to King’s Park the following day in search of their first Rugby Championship win of the season.
De Jongh will likely slot in at No 12 in the WP backline, with Huw Jones and Johnny Kotze the favourites to line up at outside centre.