Injury to insult for WP
Western Province were counting the cost of their first loss of the season, a 33-35 loss to the Golden Lions in Johannesburg at the weekend.
WP coach Allister Coetzee revealed that Springbok flank Siya Kolisi (who left the Ellis Park pitch in the eighth minute), hooker Stephan Coetzee (replaced in the 21st minute) and in-form right wing Kobus van Wyk (replaced at the start of the second half) are all on the doubtful list ahead of their Round Seven Currie Cup encounter with Griquas.
"Siya is not very comfortable at the moment," the coach said, adding: "It looks like his knee or groin, it could be both at the moment.
"Stephan looks like he will miss out with an ankle injury and Kobus van Wyk will be examined after failing to come on in the second half.
"Kobus took a knock, but fortunately for him there's no sign of concussion [as he didn't have a concussion test or anything]."
The loss of Coetzee saw fit-again hooker Scarra Ntubeni pressed into action sooner than anticipated, after a long injury lay-off himself but the WP coach had plenty of praise for the combative No.2.
"Scarra had to hang in there,"Coetzee said.
"At sea level [in Cape Town] he could easily have made 50-60 minutes, but here, at altitude, it was a case of giving him 30-40 minutes only.
"But he made a good impact on the game and he will be better for it against Griquas next week."
Coetzee said his team's usually sound defence was tested to the limit and proved lethargic at the start of the encounter.
"One has to start by giving the Lions credit and congratulate them on a good performance and they deserved the win as they played well," Coetzee said.
"They put us under pressure with the ball in hand and we were way off our standard in terms of our defence.
Lions flyhalf Jaco van der Walt asked questions of the Province defence and he 'punched some holes' and made a massive difference, he said.
"If we force players in, from the outside, he has got to be smoked [tackled] and that didn't happen. Jaco made metres and punched some holes, same as Andries Coetzee."
He also bemoaned his team's lack of intensity in the close-combat situations.
"In the physical exchanges they were better and it is something we will have to look at – it is one thing that is non-negotiable."
Coetzee has vowed to 'take it on the chin', after his team suffered their first loss of the 2014 Currie Cup season.
"We've got standards, but unfortunately we weren't good enough. Congratulations to the Lions, they deserved the victory."
The Province boss was initially unable to put his finger on where things went wrong for his log-leading team, but he added: "We looked a bit flat out there, our attack wasn't where it should be and we were way off our usual standards on defence."
WP will host Griquas at Newlands on Saturday.
