'Great comeback' for Province
Western Province made a "great comeback" after their defeat to the Sharks in Durban last weekend to beat the high-riding Griquas convincingly at Newlands on Saturday.
This was the view of head coach Allister Coetzee after his team's six tries to three 45-21 win, which ended the visitors' three-game winning run.
"It's a pleasing result and I think we responded well after last weekend," said Coetzee.
"This is a top Griquas side. They had successful outings away from home against the Lions and they beat the Sharks, they beat the Bulls, so it was really a good response.
"I'm really happy with where we are at the moment. This is a great comeback."
However, the coach did not go overboard in his praise of his players, since he believed that while they did well to win by a big margin, it was a far from faultless performance and individuals would be disappointed by some aspects of the performance. The endeavour would be to get that right going forward.
Province captain Deon Fourie praised the patience of his players and their success in sticking to the team's structures.
"We know Griquas are a side who can hold the ball in their own 22 through 20 phases and they have the magic to score tries, so we put a lot of emphasis on keeping our structure and not giving away silly penalties, and I think we did that," said Fourie.
Two of the six WP tries came from interceptions, but the coach and captain agreed that going for intercepts was risky.
While happy with the team's patience on defence which had created the pressure to facilitate interceptions, Fourie added:"It's an individual thing. If it comes off we clap hands; if it doesn't then on Monday Jacques [Nienaber] is on his case!"
Coetzee commented: "The rhythm was quite good in terms of our defence. We know they play with a lot of width and it's the player's own prerogative to come ahead in front [of the defensive line] and go for the intercept, but should you get it wrong, then you're in trouble.
"But we really enjoyed the two intercept tries!"
Coetzee said the team had tweaked their attacking game-plan for the Currie Cup and one of the notable things they were trying was quick tap-kicks. The first try had come from a quick tap.
In a similar situation in the Super 15 they would have taken the three points, he explained. Playing at night at Newlands, they would have been focused on 'building an innings' and would've kicked for posts.
"It's always a matter of what is rewarding at this point in time, and we're trying this in this competition to see what we can take to the Super 15 for next year. This is something that I think is working for us so we're quite happy to see it's coming off."
The penalty try awarded to Griquas after WP had been shoved backwards at a scrum five metres from their goal-line had been disappointing.
"It's a mindset; I think we let it slip a bit," Fourie believed.
Coetzee commented: "I think they caught us on the hit and it was a good scrum from Griquas. Let's not take that away from them because they've got a good pack. Our props [substitutes Deon Carstens and Brok Harris] were very disappointed by the penalty try. We've got to make sure it doesn't happen again."
There were no major injury concerns for Province heading into their game against the Lions at Newlands on Saturday (kick-off 14h00). Gio Aplon had taken a knock to the ankle and substituting him had been merely precautionary.
By Len Kaplan at Newlands
