Cape Town - Western Province coach John Dobson has only one goal for his team’s Currie Cup meeting with the Cheetahs at Newlands tomorrow. And that’s a win.
The WP boss made it crystal clear that they will have to secure the three points at home this weekend, not only to “wash off” their 45-26 defeat to the Blue Bulls of two weeks ago, but also so that they can remain title contenders.
And Dobson, who has made eight changes to the side that went down at Loftus, seems confident that his team can get the job done.
“I’m very happy with this team. It seems like things have for once fallen our way. (We had a) couple of disappointing injuries. Oli Kebble was very good at Loftus. Chad Solomons was good when he came on at Loftus and Dan du Plessis is obviously a player we’re trying to bring through, so those three injuries are a bit of a blow, but overall I’m very happy with this side,” Dobson said.
Prop Kebble (knee) and centre Du Plessis (shoulder) have one week of recovery time left before they return from their injuries, while hooker Solomon has been ruled out for the season with an ankle injury.
But these injuries didn’t get Dobson down too much. He is very excited about the new faces WP have welcomed back after Super Rugby, and what they can bring to the team.
“If you look at the guys coming in, it’s fantastic for us. Martin Ferreira has played a bit of Super Rugby, JC Janse van Rensburg is a Springbok, Huw (Jones) and Johnny (Kotze) in the centre. It’s a nice team. I don’t think Rob had his very best game at Loftus and I think Thomo (Brandon Thomson, pictured) didn’t play a helluva lot in Super Rugby, but when he did he was very effective. He came on at Loftus and was very effective.”
“And Friday night at Newlands it’s an important game; you have to keep the scoreboard ticking over, urgh, all the cliches,” Dobson joked, before cracking another one.
“You want to play in the right areas of the field,” he quipped. “Nah but we do. We do need to evolve our kicking game and Thomo deserves an opportunity and he does give us some real solidity there.”
Dobson also explained his reasons for going with a four-three split between forwards and backs on the bench as opposed to a five-two split.
“There is a case for going five-two, but if you think about it, obviously we have to have Godlen (Masimla) there. We need somebody to cover 10. So the only other guy to have left out if we wanted to go five-two is Cheslin Kolbe. And I’m never gonna do that. We want to get Cheslin integrated quickly. He hasn’t played fifteens for three months almost. So we had to go four-three. About the showdown on Friday night, Dobson said: “The Cheetahs are one of the meanest teams in the Currie Cup, but I can tell you with 100 percent confidence that we are a completely different team to the team that was at Loftus. In terms of our systems, technically, our confidence, the team, everything,” Dobson assured journalists at the team announcement at Newlands yesterday.
Teams for Newlands
Western Province:15 Jaco Taute, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Johnny Kotze, 12 Huw Jones, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Brandon Thomson, 9 Jano Vermaak, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Kobus van Dyk, 6 Rynhardt Elstadt, 5 Chris van Zyl (captain), 4 Jan de Klerk, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Alistair Vermaak. Bench: 16 Martin Ferreira, 17 JC Janse van Rensburg, 18 JP Smith, 19 Jurie van Vuuren, 20 Godlen Masimla, 21 Robert du Preez, 22 Cheslin Kolbe
Free State Cheetahs:15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Rayno Benjamin, 13 Nico Lee, 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Raymond Rhule, 10 Fred Zeilinga, 9 Tian Meyer (captain), 8 Niell Jordaan, 7 Uzair Cassiem, 6 Paul Schoeman, 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Charles Marais. Bench: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Justin Basson, 20 Henco Venter, 21 Shaun Venter, 22 Niel Marais, 23 Michael van der Spuy.
Referee: Craig Joubert
Kick-off:5pm TV-SS1 SSHD1
Cape Argus