DHL Western Province’s Under-19 team will face up to the Golden Lions’ Under-19s on Friday (kick-off 13h45), with both teams chasing a victory… for a slightly different reason.
The DHL WP U19s, with 37 log points from ten matches, will move that one step closer to a home semifinal with a win, whilst the Lions’ U19s (on 22 points) are fighting to remain in semifinal contention.
“This is a very important game for us,” admitted DHL WP Under-19 coach Nazeem Adams.
“We need to win both of our (remaining) matches to be sure of a top two finish. There is an outside chance of finishing top, but that’s not something we’re too focused on due to the final being hosted at a neutral venue.
“But while this match is important for us, the Lions – who have a game in hand – can overtake Free State should they win this and keep their semifinal hopes alive. If they lose, it could be tough to qualify.”
Adams knows all about the performances of a desperate team.
Whilst it is definitely far-fetched to refer to the Province Under-19s as desperate, they did put any potential demons firmly to bed in their previous encounter (two weeks ago) when they claimed a brilliant 53-20 win over the Bulls, erasing their disappointing 32-41 defeat in Pretoria a few weeks before.
Adams told the www.wprugby.com website: “I’ve been saying for some time that we could beat most teams with a complete performance and that win over the Bulls saw us play for close to 70 minutes.
“In previous games we have managed to play for about 20 minutes, 25 minutes… it’s always been a question of us sustaining our performance, which we finally managed to achieve against the Bulls.
“Our strength is obviously when we have ball in hand, but we’ve been working hard on our defence and ensuring we can win the ball back if or when we don’t have it. Our defence was certainly part of our improved performance against the Bulls, as was our set-piece, which we’ve also been working hard at.”
Team-wise, coach Adams has kept the changes to a minimum this week, as one would expect, with right-wing Duncan Saal missing out with a hip injury and Gerard Pieterse starting in his place.
Scrumhalves Herschel Jantjies (starting this week) and Paul de Wet (on the bench) swap around, whilst hard-working flanker Mitchell Carstens makes his return from injury via the bench.
“It’s crucial to keep as much continuity as possible in the final three/four weeks of what is a very long (14-week) tournament,” explained Adams.
“The key is to keep the spine of your team together as much as possible, so we’re lucky from that point of view.”
The DHL WP Under-19 team for Friday (v Golden Lions, away) is as follows:
15. Tiaan Swanepoel
14. Gerard Pieterse
13. Eduan Keyter
12. Edrich Venter (vice-captain)
11. Edwill van der Merwe
10. Aidynn Cupido
9. Herschel Jantjies
8. Jaco Coetzee (captain)
7. Daniel Maree
6. Saud Abrahams
5. Eduard Zandberg
4. Jaco Willemse
3. Michael Kumbirai
2. Jacques van Zyl
1. Ruben Terblanche
Replacements:
16. Brenton Greaves
17. Derrick Marais
18. Nathan Meilhon
19. Gary Porter
20. Mitchell Carstens
21. Paul de Wet
22. Justin Heunis
23. Kurt-Lee Arendse
Referee: Archie Sehlako
