WP coach not happy with Loftus scoreline

REACTION: Western Province coach John Dobson was not pleased with certain aspects of his team’s performance in their 48-24 win over the Bulls in their Currie Cup opener at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

The Bulls were without their regular stars as they were involved in the Rainbow Cup Final in Italy on the same day. The Pretoria side had to rely on youngsters, most of which still played in the Varsity Cup and Pretoria’s Carlton Cup club league in the last few weeks.

“I was quite pleased with some aspects of our performance like the set-pieces, possession and some of the effort on attack,” said Dobson.

“We are probably disappointed with the scoreline. We conceded two tries in the last five minutes and we got a yellow card.

“We weren’t thrilled with our defence in the first half. I think we only made 10 tackles in the half and we missed a few.

“We knew that the young [Bulls] team would keep playing and I think we could have defended better.

“I think we were seduced a little bit by our set-piece dominance and that turned into playing some pretty careless rugby at stages.”

Dobson knows that his team will have to be a lot better if they want to beat the Lions in Johannesburg.

“It was always going to be a tough game for us. The Bulls were dangerous because they had nothing to lose and everybody expecting us to win.

“But everything will have to be better at Ellis Park next week. The Lions will have some players back, and they are obviously hurting after what happened last night [the Lions’ 10-39 defeat to the Pumas on Friday].

“I don’t think our performance [in Pretoria] would be a win at Ellis Park. We got a lot of work over the next few days,” Dobson added.

Hooker JJ Kotze, who was one of five debutants in the WP matchday squad, scored four of Province’s seven tries in the win.

“I am really pleased for the debutants. I thought they all did really well.

“JJ Kotze is going to be a good hooker. Hacjivah [Dayimani] was great in the second half.

All five debutants were good,” said Dobson

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