Best defence will bring home the cup

22 October 2014 - 02:16 By Craig Ray
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MONEYBALL: Scrumhalf Ross Cronje of the Xerox Golden Lions goes through his paces during training ahead of the Currie Cup final against Western Province at Newlands on Saturday
MONEYBALL: Scrumhalf Ross Cronje of the Xerox Golden Lions goes through his paces during training ahead of the Currie Cup final against Western Province at Newlands on Saturday
Image: DUIF DU TOIT/GALLO IMAGES

The two best attacking teams will clash in the Currie Cup final, in which Western Province meet the Golden Lions at Newlands on Saturday, but it will be defence that wins it.

Both teams have scored tries freely, meaning the path to victory for both teams will be stifling the other's attacking instincts.

The Lions scored six tries in their 50-20 semifinal win over the Sharks, while Western Province scored three on their way to a 31-23 win over the Blue Bulls.

Over the course of the season both teams have only conceded 24 tries, so there is nothing to choose between them.

"It's finals rugby now and it will be tough because they are a good defensive unit," Province assistant coach Robbie Fleck said.

"Everyone sees the Lions as an attacking side, but they have improved their defence massively and that makes them a far better side than they have been in the past.

"We won't change too much in our approach, but we will take into consideration it's a final and we will have to make the right decisions.

"We won't go out there with a complete ball-in-hand approach, because territory and possession will be vital. We have to keep the opposition guessing.

"It will be a step up and we will be challenged in many avenues, but we're prepared for that."

Fleck was spot on, and in almost every statistical measure the Lions have the upper hand. One significant category is missed tackles, where Western Province have missed 316 to the Lions' 193. But Province have made nearly 700 more tackles over the season.

The Lions have managed 51 tries to Western Province's 43, but Fleck is happy with the way the Cape side have evolved their attacking play since the Super 15.

"Our attack has taken a significant move up from where we were in Super rugby," Fleck said.

"After that tournament we took stock and one of the obvious problems was that we couldn't score enough tries. It had been a problem for some time and we needed to face up to that.

"But we had huge success with our kicking and defensive game and we couldn't abandon that.

"The funny thing is that even though we're scoring tries, we haven't moved too far from what worked in the past.

"We've always had the ability to score from structured play and set pieces, but now we've added broken play to that as well.

"With the type of personnel we have, we had to work towards playing to their strengths," Fleck said.

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