WP want best of both worlds in Currie Cup's business end

REACTION: Western Province have two goals they want to achieve during the business end of this year’s Currie Cup.

With three round to go until the semifinals, WP are in sixth place in the standings with just 13 points from their nine games.

Despite their poor record, they are still within eight points of the fourth-placed Griquas, which means they still have a chance of making the play-offs.

However, finishing the tournament on a high won’t be their only goal. They are also looking ahead to the future.

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“At the beginning of the season we said we want to win the thing, but we want to bring players through, and we are sticking to that,” said WP assistant coach Nazeem Adams ahead of his team’s clash against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.

“It’s important to bring in enough depth for next season’s URC campaign.

“It’s the same with Currie Cup. The guys must understand that we still want to do well in the Currie Cup.”

He added: “We feel that we also have that momentum now.

“Besides the fact that we won against the Pumas, we also played quite well against Free State and we believe that we are on an upward curve.

“In saying that we also want to support the URC team as far as possible and it is a good working relationship developing between us.

“Maybe we will get one or two guys back from the URC squad.”

Meanwhile, WP fullback Tristan Leyds says their 23-17 victory over the Pumas in Round 11 was a turning point for the team.

“We had a tough start with back-to-back losses throughout the season and that [win over the Pumas] was our turnaround period when we had to get pride back into our team and to show what the jersey means to us,” said Leyds.

He added: “We are expecting the Lions to put out a strong team, but for this week the focus is just on us taking the next step and what we can do better and what we can do to go forward in the Currie Cup.”

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Main photo: @WP_RUGBY