Cpae Town - The red-hot Golden Lions are 3-1 favourites to snatch the Currie Cup away from Western Province in tomorrow’s final at Ellis Park, and the defending champions are enjoying the shade that comes with being written off as underdogs.
“There’s nothing for us to lose,” said WP coach John Dobson yesterday after naming an unchanged team.
“This week has been quite pressure-free ... because this final is so skewed against us. We conceded 60 points (against the Lions) a few weeks ago, they ran away with the log, scoring the most tries and points, and conceding the least points, and we’re playing at their home ground, at altitude, at 1.45pm, in 28-degree temperatures ...
“For us to win this game, the chaps are going to have to play accurately through exhaustion, it’s that simple. But we’re going to stand up; it’s going to be a shoot-out and we’re going to roll the dice. In a final, if we look after a few of their talismans, put them under pressure, and our belief grows, we’ve got a chance.”
Despite the long odds, there were long faces among those who lost out in the clamour for places on the flight to Johannesburg last night, and this reflects WP’s fighting spirit.
“It’s quite a pleasure to go into the final unchanged, it’s the first time this season,” Dobson noted. “It seems to be something about rugby, when it gets to the play-offs, guys don’t get injured.”
Dobson acknowledged that his squad was relatively green, but he isn’t anticipating any stage fright in the decider.
“The one thing going for us is the amount of play-off experience that these guys have had at the union,” said the WP coach. “They’ve all played Under-19 and Under-21 Currie Cup finals and a few have played Super Rugby play-offs, so they’ve got experience of finals rugby.”
South Africa’s domestic championship, once the envy of world rugby, has been overtaken by international regional competitions such as Super Rugby and the European Cup. This, together with the broadcast of tomorrow’s do-or-die World Cup semi-final clash between South Africa and New Zealand at 5pm, is certain to affect the turnout at Ellis Park. It won’t keep hardcore Province fans away, though, according to Dobson. “I’m sure this is the least-hyped Currie Cup final ever and it’ll probably be the least attended,” he said. “That’s a nice thing for us, not having to walk into a seething cauldron.
“It was similar at Loftus Versfeld in last week’s semi-final. But that blue-and-white striped jersey is one of the best sold, non-national rugby shirts in the world, and what’s wonderful about Ellis Park and Loftus is that you just see pockets of those jerseys all over the park.
“When Jano Vermaak scored that try at Loftus last week, you just saw a whole section of the crowd jumping up, and that’s all the Province guys who are hating every minute of living up there, and we can give them some release.” - The Star