WP want to cut loose
Western Province backline coach Rob Fleck believes that the Currie Cup is the perfect platform to develop his team's attacking game.
The Cape union are renowned for their defensive strength but have come in for criticism for their lack of potency on attack – which is an area that Fleck is keen to develop in the Currie Cup.
While competition is fierce in the new six-team format of the competition, the former Bok midfielder believes that it presents a great opportunity for his team to work on their weaknesses.
"The Currie Cup is first and foremeost about winning it but it is also about developing your gameplan and your player depth.
"You can already see that there has been a change in mindset in the way that we play in the Currie Cup, we are definitely opening the game up a little bit more, we are not as structured and conservative," he said.
Fleck pointed to the freedom with which Western Province played against the Golden Lions last week as evidence that they are working hard on threatening the opposition tryline more consistently.
"It was pretty evident in that last game against the Lions that there was a bit more freedom. We use the Currie Cup as a platform to try new things and to advance our game.
"Obviously our attacking game needs a major focus, specifically in general attack and now is the opportunity to do that," he said.
However, there is a fine line between working on your weaknesses and ignoring your strengths, and Fleck was clear that the focus is on getting a positive result before they start experimenting too much.
"The Currie Cup has definitely become a chance for the bigger teams to experiment with their gameplans and find promising youngsters, but first and foremost it is still about winning.
"Even though you want to try things the pressure is still there, it's a tougher competition, it's smaller so there is less room for error.
"One thing we don't want to do, and I am sure the Bulls are the same, is that you don't want to move away from your core strengths. For us it is our defensive game and playing our territory game which has been quite successful for the Bulls in the past few seasons as well so they won't veer to far from that either.
"Even though both sides are trying to improve on their attacking game and experiment a little bit, it still won't be at the cost of the result" he said.
By Michael de Vries
