DHL Western Province Head Coach Jerome Paarwater says that his team understand exactly what they need to work on to improve going forward in the Carling Currie Cup.
The home side launched a spirited late fightback against the Vodacom Bulls at DHL Stadium on Saturday, scoring the last three tries of the game.
While disappointed with their performance in the first half of the North-South clash, Paarwater said that they can take heart from the fact that they never let their heads drop despite the pressure the visitors had them under.
He underlined the fact that the areas which require attention are clear, which means that they know exactly what to work on in the next few weeks before their next game.
“We are proud of the second half but we let ourselves down in the first half.
“That is not how we want to play, but to be fair it was a short turnaround and the Bulls pitched with a totally new side. So it is tough on the bodies, but no excuses we know what to work on and we just have to look forward.
“It was the second game of the season and we didn’t have a lot of time to work on our mistakes from the previous game. We had to focus on the Bulls and we knew what was coming, so we tried our best to put in the work this week. We could have given up but we didn’t which for me is a big positive,” he said.
Captain Nama Xaba added that the way his team performed in the last 20 minutes will give them encouragement going forward, as disappointed as they were with the way the match started.
“With the quality and aspirations of our side, obviously we were disappointed with the way we started. If you look at the bigger picture there are a lot of positives to take out of the way we finished as well. We didn’t drop our heads and played until the last minute,” he said.
DHL Western Province now have a break before their next fixture against the Cell C Sharks in Durban on Wednesday, February 2.