CAPE TOWN – Sergeal Petersen might have been Clayton Blommetjies’ best man, but this isn’t a wedding and the Western Province wing is going to be all business in their Currie Cup cruncher against the Free State Cheetahs this weekend... at least ‘till after the game.
Petersen, who played for the Cheetahs for three years before moving to Cape Town to join the Stormers ahead of the 2018 Super Rugby season, yesterday spoke about how the team are keen to fix their latest performance - which resulted in a 27-23 defeat to Griquas in Kimberley on Friday night.
While the hosts put on an enjoyable display, the visitors lost the game for themselves something you can’t afford in this compressed single-round competition.
Province can’t expect things to get any easier on Saturday, when they take on the second-on-the-log Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, and Petersen reckons there was still a lot of positives to take out of their game at Griqua Park.
“We really shot ourselves in the foot at the weekend, but there are many positives to take out of the game,” Petersen, who recently made his return from injury, said.
“There were many negatives as well, but we’ll work hard and hopefully we can fix it come the weekend.”
Sergeal Petersen in action for the Stormers against the Jaguares. Photo: EPA/Juan Ignacio Roncoroni
After having lost three of their five games this season, WP have to win their last league game to get into the semi-finals, and Petersen says taking the positives forward and putting up a strong defensive performance will be key.
“It’s a must win for us, we put ourselves in this position but we’re just going to have to focus on what we can do and hopefully that’ll be enough to get the job done,” Petersen said.
“We know the game against the Cheetahs is going to be very tough, especially in Bloemfontein. They’ll come at us with everything in the first half, but we’re going to focus on ourselves and hopefully we can use the positives there were against Griquas and implement it for 80 minutes. We’re also working hard on defence this week, and hopefully we get more ball on the outside.
“We created many opportunities, but sometimes the last pass just didn’t go to hand and we also made a number of handling errors and conceded a lot of penalties. So hopefully we can just nullify that.”
While Petersen will be going up against his former teammates, the 25-year-old said there is nothing particularly different to this game.
Sergeal Petersen: We put ourselves in this position but we’re just going to have to focus on what we can do Photo: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix
“It’s my second year here, so I’m at home in Cape Town,” he said. “I just want to go out and play. There’s always the desire to show what you’re capable of, so this game will be no different. It’s an opportunity for me to go out and play rugby, and I appreciate it.
“Clayton and I are very good friends, I was the best man at his wedding. I’m looking forward to seeing the guys again, but we need to go out and get the five points and catch up afterwards.”