Western Province pleased with defence but don’t want it to be a habit
As the Currie Cup premier division reaches the halfway mark‚ Western Province appear to be finding form and Bok wing Dillyn Leyds believes there is more to come.
WP thrashed the Golden Lions 39-3 at Newlands last Friday‚ scoring six tries while making 278 tackles according to defence coach Norman Laker.
It was the kind of defensive effort that championship-winning teams have the ability to pull off.
Leyds though‚ felt the team tackled too much and even though they executed their defensive work superbly‚ tackling as much as they did is not an aspect of the game they want to turn into a trend.
WP play the Sharks at Newlands this weekend‚ which is a must-win for the home team against a side that has lost only one of its five matches.
The Sharks are middling when it comes to ball carries‚ but they are the team that has made the most kicking metres in the tournament‚ as they look to play for territory and use their powerful set piece to set up attacks.
"Obviously it is not nice coming in on a Monday and knowing we made over 200 tackles‚” Leyds said.
"We’ve just got to be up for it and we are just focusing on ourselves at the moment. I think that is the best thing to do right now.
"We've had two good wins after the Griquas loss now‚ we are pretty confident in our own ability and we just want to continue getting some momentum heading into the second round of the Currie Cup.
"Obviously‚ we made quite a few tackles [against the Lions]‚ but when we did get the ball it was very important for us to finish the opportunities we did get.
"There were still a couple of points left out there where we kicked the ball away too early or it was just a simple draw and pass here and there that should have been an extra seven points.
"We have a bye next week so‚ we would like to go into that bye week with a good result."
Laker though‚ was a happy man.
“It was a tough start to the campaign‚ especially that loss to Griquas‚” Laker said.
“But the defence is a work in progress.
“Against the Bulls we didn’t defend badly but still conceded a few tries [WP won 45-34]‚ but this past weekend everything came together and we didn’t concede.
“Our focus has been on improving our tackle technique because the rugby in the Currie Cup is physical so we are working on our double tackling technique. But we are working to adapt our tackling to all types of situations.
“We didn’t have a lot of possession against the Lions‚ but we did well. Having said that though‚ you don’t want to make 278 tackles every game.”
- TimesLIVE