After three consecutive away games, DHL Western Province are looking forward to running out at DHL Stadium in a Carling Currie Cup clash against the Airlink Pumas next week.

The team showed incredible character to run the tabletopping Toyota Cheetahs close in Bloemfontein on Wednesday, scoring a late try to claim a bonus point for their efforts.

Their next assignment will be against the Airlink Pumas on Wednesday, where they will be targting a win after showing some encouraging signs against the unbeaten Toyota Cheetahs.

DHL Western Province currently find themselves in fifth position on the Carling Currie Cup standings, eight points behind the fourth-placed Tafel Lager Griquas.

The match against the Airlink Pumas signals the end of the first round of fixtures and DHL Western Province will be looking to make some ground up in the second round to seure a place in the semifinals.

DHL Western Province captain Nama Xaba said that while he was proud of the effort his team put in, there will be more hard work this week as they look ahead to the home game at DHL Stadium.

“In the context of what we wanted to achieve we are disappointed because we wanted to come away with four points. In terms of the effort the players gave I think we can be proud. That said we don’t want to play to the narrative of being brave losers, we just need to try fix what went wrong and for the next game we want to get the points,” he said.

DHL Western Province Head Coach Jerome Paarwater said that his team want to build on the encouraging aspects of their performance in Bloemfontein and make the most of home advantage next week.

“The Airlink Pumas are a physical team, so they will come out hard. So it is not going to get easier, we need to prepare well, but after three away games in a row we are looking forward to playing in Cape Town,” he said.