Director of Rugby John Dobson looked back on DHL Western Province’s hard-fought Carling Currie Cup win at the Danie Craven Stadium against the Airlink Pumas.
It was a tense Carling Currie Cup encounter, but DHL Western Province did enough to claim a full five log points. They regroup for this week’s clash against the Suzuki Griquas at Suzuki Stadium in the final round of the regular Carling Currie Cup campaign.
Dobson defended the decisions made regarding the role of the Currie Cup in the development of their squad depth.
“Strategically, the Carling Currie Cup hit the nail on the head for us. Divan Fuller is knocking hard on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship door for the DHL Stormers; JC Mars if he had stayed fit, also, but when he comes back he will be."
"If we hadn’t gone through what we have this season, arguably no one would be talking about this impressive kid from Paarl Boys’ High. People would be saying, ‘See you in a couple of years’, but he’s here now, knocking."
"Jonathan Roche has been fantastic. Everyone’s telling us Damian Markus is too small but he’s got real skill and he’s not scared of anything, and he’s such a pleasant young man from a very humble background."
"I was a bit worried about prop after injuries to Lizo Gqoboka, Ali Vermaak and Sazi Sandi but Vernon Matongo has been good, as well as Zachary Porthen. That’s what the Carling Currie Cup is there for.”
Dobson also said that the return of players was not the reason for the DHL Western Province's struggles against the Pumas.
“In terms of the returnees getting game time, Ruben van Heerden, Joseph Dweba, Adre Smith, it was very much a good outing. I felt like we could’ve played a bit better but we can’t single out the returnees because they were in the minority. But for the first time this season, we had not one injury and had the likes of Ruben getting 35 minutes, Joe [Dweba] looked good, Dave Ewers got on the field, it was great."
"In terms of the battle, we maybe weren’t 100 percent but in terms of our strategy, it was very good. Just to see Joe come on and score, they brought another level of intensity in that second half. Steven Kitshoff and Manie Libbok both needed rugby and what was nice for Kitsie was he got plenty of scrums. Manie clearly needs a gallop but there were some nice signs.”