AUDIO: Poor discipline frustrates Province boss
REACTION: If Western Province want to remain unbeaten they must alleviate their ill-discipline ahead of the upcoming Currie Match against the Sharks.
Both teams head into what is a replay of last year’s Currie Cup Final with unbeaten records, which means that the team that wins at Newlands will top the standings.
John Dobson was pleased with his team’s 38-12 victory against Griquas but felt they let themselves down somewhat in the second half.
Given their struggles after half-time and the Sharks’ impressive performance against the Golden Lions, Dobson knows that his side have their work cut out for them this week if they are to remain unbeaten.
“The Sharks were very impressive physically against the Lions from what I saw, so it is going to be a nice Currie Cup classic Test match next week.
“After our second half and their [Sharks] performance we have got no room for complacency.
“What is good for us is that it gives us something to get our teeth into for next week,” he said.
The Western Province Head Coach pinpointed a lack of discipline as the biggest factor in a disappointing second half for his side, which is an area that will receive some attention this week.
“Our discipline in the second half, we gave away 18 penalties and I said to the team that if you go back to 1891 you won’t find a team that has won the Currie Cup after conceding 18 penalties.
“You could sense that the crowd were enjoying it and we wanted to get that noise up again. We are sitting here feeling like it was a loss when there is lots to be happy about,” he added.
https://soundcloud.com/user-645352503/springbok-assistant-coach-mzwandile-stick-ahead-of-facing-wallabies-2
Captain Chris van Zyl echoed the thoughts of his coach in saying that discipline had let them down and he explained that the team is trying to play a crowd-pleasing brand of rugby.
“I think the root of all our problems was our discipline, then they would kick back into our half and we would be defending line-outs.
“It would be interesting to see how many tackles we made in the second half, because it felt like we were defending the whole time.
“We were maybe a bit loose in the second half, we were trying to be as direct as possible.
“We are trying to play a brand of rugby that brings people in and that first half is the standards we have been talking about and what we want to do.
“We felt that we let down ourselves, our standards and obviously the fans as well in the second half,” he said.
@WP_Rugby
