DHL Western Province has less than two weeks before their next Carling Currie Cup game to work hard and ensure they are firing at full capacity when they face the Tafel Lager Griquas in Kimberley.
Having gone into half-time of their clash with the Cell C Sharks on Wednesday deadlocked with the home side at 13-13, a yellow card just before the break to captain Tim Swiel proved pivotal as the Durban side scored three quick tries after half-time to take control of the game.
To their credit, DHL Western Province fought back manfully in the slippery conditions, but it was not enough to avoid a 35-20 defeat.
Head Coach Jerome Paarwater admitted that Swiel’s yellow card had made things very difficult for his team, but added that he was proud of the way they fought until the final whistle.
“We were in the game until half-time and the game changed when Tim Swiel got that yellow card.
“We are obviously not happy with the result, but the players showed a bit of courage to come back and play hard until the end,” he said.
Looking forward, DHL Western Province next faces the Tafel Lager Griquas in Kimberley on Friday, February 18 and Paarwater said that the focus will be to work hard on the areas that let them down against the Cell C Sharks.
“We know there are no easy games for us and we need to focus on ourselves. We have to look at our mistakes and improve in those areas.
“It is never easy in Kimberley, but we need to work on our game and be ready for whatever comes,” he said.
One aspect that has encouraged Paarwater was that the aspects of their game that they focused on before facing the Cell C Sharks did show a marked improvement.
“We worked on stopping mauls, which we did well and we worked on our mauls, which went quite well,” he added.