Province ready to finish the job
Rudolph Jacobs
Western Province will not wilt under pressure, despite the high expectations placed on them to finish the job in Saturday’s Currie Cup final against the Sharks at Newlands, according to the home side’s assistant and backline coach Dawie Snyman.
Province were aware, however, that the last three finals between the two teams had not gone the way of the hosts.
“Playing at home in front of our home crowd will be exciting and the players are looking forward to it. It is something we worked towards as a team,” Snyman said.
“Obviously the pressure of playing in a final will be there, but we are going to embrace it and enjoy the moment.”
Snyman felt their 33-21 win in the final in Durban last year, as well as their recent 50-28 victory over the Sharks, would count for little.
“Last year’s final win doesn’t mean we are under more pressure,” he said. “Going into last year we were probably a bit of the underdog, but we also beat them in the round-robin stage, so we knew we could win it.
“We are also not taking anything out of the last game. We put 50 points on them but at one stage it was really close at just 31-28, and they had momentum, but this weekend is a new 80 minutes.
“We can maybe look at the opportunities we created in that game, but we are looking at this weekend as being 0-0.”
While there was a big debate about whether Province would name Damian Willemse or Josh Stander as their starting flyhalf, Snyman said the focus in their camp had been on recovery after the 100-min semifinal thriller against the Blue Bulls last weekend.
“The last three weeks the guys didn’t train on the Monday in order to get their bodies ready for the next challenge, but we trained Tuesday and will again [today] to get the niggles sorted.
“We will stick to our strengths but obviously playoff rugby is a bit different through the pressure that is being applied, and it is important that we get our balance right.”