Cape Town – While “proud” of the effort in Saturday’s Currie Cup semi-final, Western Province coach John Dobson couldn’t understand why his team didn’t set up a maul from a lineout in the closing stages of the 36-30 loss to the Blue Bulls.
Province had a series of penalties in the left-hand corner with the score at 29-27 to the Bulls with 12 minutes left, and once they had opted to kick it into touch instead of at goal, they would’ve been expected to try and maul it over the line.
This was due to their opening touchdown in the first quarter when a remarkable drive from the Bulls 22-metre line saw WP slowly creep forward and No 8 Nizaam Carr dived over.
But with about 10 minutes to go and WP trailing 29-27 at Loftus Versfeld, a lineout ball was taken off the top to scrumhalf Jano Vermaak, who was quickly closed down by the Bulls forwards. Then a series of pick and go’s were repelled, and Bulls loose forward Hanro Liebenberg actually won the ball back on the ground.
The WP pack were awarded a penalty at the subsequent scrum, but Carr took a quick tap – with new captain Juan de Jongh just behind him after starting skipper Chris van Zyl was earlier replaced by JD Schickerling – and Province were denied once more.
But a third penalty in the ensuing play eventually saw De Jongh slow things down and ask Robert du Preez to kick at goal, which he did and WP were 30-29 up. However, a potential seven points went down the drain, which would’ve put Province 34-29 up with nine minutes left.
Instead, the Bulls scored the winning try through replacement scrumhalf Ivan van Zyl with two minutes to go. Despite that early maul success, WP hardly tried to rumble it up again, and wasted a number of try-scoring opportunities.
“(The first-half maul try) That’s why we went for touch down in the far corner there in the second half, and I’m not sure why we didn’t maul it. I thought we had them at maul-time, and we sort of did funny breakaways that were a bit disappointing. A try there, and we would’ve gone five or six points clear,” Dobson said in the post-match press conference.
“Ja, it’s one of those things where we will look back and rue some of the decisions. But to be honest, on overall reflection of the game, it was probably a fair result in the end. It would’ve been lucky if we had to win it.”
The lighter WP pack tried hard in the physical stakes against the giant Bulls pack, but ultimately Province gave the home side too much space to attack in and allowed their key ball-carriers such as RG Snyman, Jannes Kirsten and Lizo Gqoboka to generate momentum, while wings Jamba Ulengo and Travis Ismaiel were lethal whenever they had ball-in-hand.
The likes of Carr, Bongi Mbonambi, Jan de Klerk and Huw Jones tried to spark WP into life on attack, but they didn’t have enough support, with Cheslin Kolbe, De Jongh and Rynhardt Elstadt seldom troubling the Bulls defence.
WP’s ability to scramble on defence kept them in the game, but they ran out of gas with two minutes to go when Van Zyl dived over with no tacklers in front of him.
“We did so many things well, but every now and again, there was a small error that gave them momentum. We did defend much better. At some stage, it had to give,” Dobson said.
“Our plan was to play off turnovers and hold them at set-piece. That is pretty much how it worked out, and if we had stuck it out, it would’ve been a really good win, a really famous win.
“That was the message in the change room now – that we were proud of them. But I thought the Bulls were excellent and they were probably deserved winners of the game if you look at it overall.”
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