WP big guns primed for semis

John Dobson says his first Currie Cup campaign will have been a failure if WP don’t beat the Bulls in the semis.

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Cape Town - John Dobson says that his first Currie Cup campaign will have been a failure if Western Province don’t top the Blue Bulls in their semi-final at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

“I’d give myself a seven out of 10 so far,” the WP coach said when asked to rate his performance after the defending champions had wrapped up the league phase of their season with a 45-14 win against the EP Kings at Newlands.

“But I’d rather answer that question in two weeks’ time. We’ve had a tough draw and some injuries and yet we’re still in a position to win the Currie Cup, but if we lose at Loftus on Friday night we will be devastated and regard this campaign as unsuccessful.”

Based on his success with the Vodacom Cup and WP U21 teams, Dobson was promoted to the Currie Cup post after Stormers coach Allister Coetzee clocked out to join Japan’s Kobe Steelers in July.

“I must be honest,” he said, “it doesn’t sit too comfortably (with me) that we’re not playing a home semi-final.”

Province last missed out on reaching the play-offs in 2008 and, in the seven seasons since then, Newlands has hosted four semi-finals.

It’s worth noting that, while the team won three of those home knockout matches to advance to the final, Province have won as many finals on the road as they have in Cape Town since 2009 - beating the Sharks in Durban in 2012, and the Lions at Newlands last year.

The road to King’s Park went through Joburg in 2012 as Province sneaked into the play-offs after losing half of their league matches. Dobson’s team has a solid 7-3 record, though it hides the fact of a 2-3 return from five road games.

Province were well beaten at Loftus Versfeld (47-29) and Ellis Park (62-32), and were ambushed in Bloemfontein 28-21.

“We knew that the Cheetahs game would come back to bite us,” said Dobson. “But we have brought through a crop of players this season to make sure that doesn’t happen again next year.

“Our first goal was to play a semi-final and the truth is that we were in the semi-finals three weeks ago. To do that with the youngest team in the competition with three weeks to go is something to be proud of.

“I think our main job in the Currie Cup now is to bring guys through, and the growth of a Robert du Preez, or a Johnny Kotze, Oli Kebble, Sikhumbuzo Notshe... in some ways we’ve fulfilled our job there because we’re seeing a tier of players who are going to go on to play at Super Rugby level.”

Dobson’s drive to expose Currie Cup juniors to senior rugby was on display in the win against the Kings as he rested key players for the imminent semi-final and trusted his second-stringers with restoring confidence in a group that was reeling after the loss against the Lions.

“We definitely got some momentum back,” said the WP coach. “The EP Kings aren’t a bad side.

“At one stage everyone was protected... guys like Notshe, Wilco Louw, Bongi Mbonambi, Nic Groom, Du Preez were all off in the second half, and it says something that we had about 10 of our starters off the field and still won 45-14 against a side that’s only been put away like that by the Lions in the first round.”

Fit-again enforcer Rynhardt Elstadt is expected to headline a raft of changes to the team this week as Dobson recalls his stalwarts for the semi-final.

“We know the team for next week, though there are a couple of areas of debate. We don’t have much depth at loose forward at the moment, but centre is one position we’ll really have to think hard about because Juan de Jongh is looking good, Johnny Kotze has been brilliant, Jaco Taute offers something that might be useful in the play-offs and Huw Jones has had some good moments - to get that right will be tricky. And we’ve got four really good back-three players, and only three can start.”

The explosive Bulls back-three combination of Travis Ismaiel, Jamba Ulengo and Warrick Gelant cut Province to pieces at Loftus Versfeld in round three.

The defending champions have since regrouped, repairing the chinks in their armour and forging new weapons for the must-win rematch.

“I don’t want to talk too much about it,” said Dobson, “but we’ve got some really good plans for the Bulls.”

Cape Argus