CAPE TOWN – Western Province assistant coach Norman Laker says they are going to have to create more turnovers if they want to put the Free State Cheetahs under pressure in their Currie Cup must-win in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Province still had a chance of securing a home semi-final going into their away game against Griquas last Friday, but the 27-23 defeat they suffered in Kimberley means that they will have to get the job done in the Free State to feature in the last four. Ahead of last Friday’s game, Griquas had lost just one - against the Cheetahs- while WP had come up short against the Sharks and Golden Lions.
While Laker put the space WP left open in the wider channels - something that was also an issue against the Pumas - down to miscommunication, he said that they are going to have to bump up their defence in general, especially against the Cheetahs.
“The Cheetahs are a quality outfit and they showed what they can do at home against Griquas,” Laker said. “If you can put 50 on a Griquas side, you must be a quality outfit.”
Laker added that creating turnovers is key to creating counter-attacking chances for the likes of Dillyn Leyds and Sergeal Petersen.
“They keep ball in hand, they don’t really kick it away, so we must try and force turnovers so guys like Dillyn and Sergeal can create chaos. So we need to create turnovers from defence,” he said. “We can definitely improve our defence, especially on last week, it wasn’t our best defensive performance of the year.
“There was some miscommunication between players that created that space out wide. This game is basically a quarter-final for us.”
Norman Laker: It (the Griquas match) was a tough result, but we didn’t play well, those were definitely not our standards. Photo: Chris Ricco/BackpagePix
Ahead of the Griquas game, WP lost Leyds, Scarra Ntubeni and Wilco Louw to national duty, while Siya Kolisi also rejoined the Springboks in Pretoria.
Leyds, Ntubeni and Louw have since returned to WP, and while Laker said they certainly felt the disruption, he acknowledged that wasn’t the only thing that influenced their performance at the weekend.
“It was a tough result, but we didn’t play well, those were definitely not our standards,” Laker said.
“It happened, and we must turn things around now. There was a lack of concentration, which cost us, but to come back and be in a position to win the game... that’s something positive we can take out of it.”