Having returned from their pre-season trip to France, DHL Western Province are determined to get their Currie Cup title defence off to a good start when they face Toyota Free State Cheetahs at DHL Newlands on Saturday, with kick-off at 17h15.
The defending champions had a bye in the first round of the competition and will get their campaign underway against the Bloemfontein side this weekend.
Head Coach John Dobson feels that the two-match tour, which saw them face Pro D2 side Narbonne and Top 14 team Montpellier was the ideal preparation for the Currie Cup.
“We were invited by Montpellier and a company called Galzin Bakeries, who hosted us at considerable expense in the interests of promoting rugby in the region.
“The trip was enormously beneficial for us on and off the field. Off the field the team bonded well and we also trained very hard.
“We trained pretty much every day except the Sunday after the game against Narbonne, so we didn’t treat it like a matchweek, we just tried to train as hard as we could to get ready for the Currie Cup,” said Dobson.
Having beaten Narbonne 59-14 in their first game, DHL Western Province were put to the test by a formidable Montpellier side in the second game and impressed despite going down 26-7 in the end.
“On the field we did very well against Narbonne, they are very physical and I thought we did very well in that game.
“Against Montpellier it was always going to be tough against five Springboks and an All Black. We also had to protect some players with injury niggles to make sure they are fine for the game against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs.
“At 14-7 with 15 minutes to go we had done incredibly well against that team. We couldn’t cross the line in the end, but I thought we emerged with a lot of honour.
“We stood up very well physically, but there were some areas we need to work on, specifically around our line-out and some of our exit plays.
“The Montpellier guys were very complimentary about how we played, we chatted to them afterwards and they were very positive about our prospects, as am I,” he said.
Dobson said that while the trip was key from a team-building point of view, the on-field preparations also saw some good progress made ahead of the Currie Cup.
“We are very grateful to our hosts in France for sponsoring the trip and to Western Province Rugby for facilitating it because it was a fantastic experience.
“When we decided to go on this trip it was a case of wanting to do whatever was best for us to play well in the Currie Cup. We felt that with such a short campaign, this was a great opportunity to give guys some exposure on this tour, because with a six-game league you do not have as much luxury of rotation as you have to win every game.
“To see guys like Herschel Jantjies, Ernst van Rhyn and Chris Massyn play so well gives us a lot of hope for the future and depth in our campaign,” said Dobson.
With the tour now a thing of the past, the focus is now squarely on their opening challenge against the Toyota Free State Cheetahs this weekend.
“Our minds are focused on what it takes to beat the Toyota Free State Cheetahs at DHL Newlands this weekend,” Dobson said.
Looking ahead to the Currie Cup campaign, Dobson acknowledged that the change of format and a new crop of players makes it a unique challenge if they are to retain their title and make it a record 35th Currie Cup victory for DHL Western Province.
“It is a much shorter format with a single round before the play-offs and we must also understand that this is not the team that won it in Durban last year, we expect 13 or 14 out of the 22 who played in the final last year not to be available for the final should we make it this year.
“So it is largely a new team, but we are very excited by the team and I think they have the potential to do retain the Currie Cup, but it is going to take some sacrifice and I thought we saw some encouraging signs against Montpellier,” he added.