DHL Western Province coach Allister Coetzee has vowed to ‘take it on the chin’, after his team suffered their first loss of the 2014 Absa Currie Cup season – against the Golden Lions – on Saturday night.

Not only was it DHL WP’s first loss of 2014, as they secured a losing bonus point in going down 33-35, but it was just their second defeat overall in 22 Absa Currie Cup matches dating back to October 4, 2012.

“All credit to the Lions tonight,” Coetzee told the official WP Rugby website on Saturday. “They made it tough for us out there and put us under pressure with ball in hand.

“We’ve got standards, but unfortunately we weren’t good enough tonight. Congratulations to the Lions, they deserved the victory.”

The Province boss was initially unable to put his finger on where things went wrong for his log-leading team, but he added: “We looked a bit flat out there, our attack wasn’t where it should be and we were way off our usual standards on defence where I thought we gave (Lions flyhalf) Jaco van der Walt a bit too much space and he punched some holes (in our defence).”

Coetzee continued: “I was proud of our fighting spirit at the end, the guys did not stop trying, but, perhaps in hindsight this was a kick up the behind that we needed… and, of course, there’s still a lot of rugby to be played this season.

“The easiest option at the end would’ve been to kick the three points, but the players took a quick tap and showed great determination to come away with something. No DHL WP team will ever give up and that was pleasing, along with our set-piece which functioned well against a good Lions scrum and line-out.

“We will take a look at things properly when we review the game, and see where we need to brush up, but at the end of the day we will take this one on the chin and look to bounce back at home, at DHL Newlands, next weekend. We’re looking forward to it!”

DHL WP will host Griquas at DHL Newlands on Saturday (kick-off 15h00) and coach Coetzee has a few injury concerns ahead of the match.

Springbok flanker Siya Kolisi (eighth minute) and hooker Stephan Coetzee (21st minute) limped off in the first half, whilst in-form right-wing Kobus van Wyk was replaced at the start of the second half.

“Siya’s not very comfortable at the moment – it looks like his knee or groin, it could be both at the moment,” Coetzee told www.wprugby.com.

“Stephan looks like he will miss out with an ankle injury and Kobus van Wyk will be examined after failing to come on in the second half. Kobus took a knock but fortunately for him there’s no sign of concussion (as he didn’t need to undergo a concussion test).”

The loss of Stephan Coetzee saw fit-again hooker Scarra Ntubeni pressed into action sooner than anticipated after a long injury lay-off himself but the DHL WP coach had plenty of praise for the combative No.2.

Said Coetzee: “Scarra had to hang in there. At sea level (in Cape Town) he could easily have made 50-60 minutes, but here, at altitude, it was a case of giving him 30-40 minutes only.

“But he made a good impact on the game and he will be better for it against Griquas next week.”