Although disappointed with his team’s first loss of the season against the Cell C Sharks XV, DHL Western Province coach John Dobson took some positives from their performance.

Although disappointed with his team’s first loss of the season against the Cell C Sharks XV, DHL Western Province coach John Dobson took some positives from their performance.

After taking a slender 11-10 lead into the half-time break, DHL Western Province battled to deal with the wet conditions in the second half in Durban as the home team closed out a 24-16 victory.

Dobson said that it was particularly disappointing to lose after dominating many aspects of the game.

“What was disappointing was how we lost, because we dominated for a large part of the game. Statistically we had territory and possession, I think they made about 100 more tackles than us.

“Perhaps we didn’t get the reward for the dominance we had at scrum-time, but I also thought we failed to adapt our kicking game to those conditions.

“It is probably one of the quietest changerooms I have been into afterwards, because the defeat hurt a lot,” he said.

The DHL Western Province coach was pleased with the intensity his team showed in the set-pieces and at the breakdown at Growthpoint Kings Park.

“I was happy with lots of aspects of our play, our set-pieces were good and we didn’t lose one single breakdown, which in those conditions is quite nice,” said Dobson.

The next challenge for Dobson’s team is a home fixture against the EP Kings at City Park in Athlone on Saturday, and the DHL Western Province coach knows they will have their work cut out for them against a good team with a few key players missing.

“The EP Kings seem to have done a really good job with this team. There are some good players, they beat the Vodacom Blue Bulls and they deserved to beat them and I think Rob Kempson has got a good thing going there so it should be a good game of rugby if the weather is decent

“We have lost a few guys this week after Godlen Masimla got concussed again and Ali Vermaak and Khanyo Ngcukana got called up to the DHL Stormers squad,” Dobson explained.

*DHL Western Province will take on the EP Kings at City Park in Athlone at 16h00 on Saturday.

Tickets for will be available at the gate at R20 for adults and R10 for scholars, while season tickets for DHL Newlands will also be valid for the match.