Western Province aims for accuracy against Cheetahs in Currie Cup clash

Western Province hopes their training session this past week against the Stormers squad will help to improve their accuracy when they face the Cheetahs on Saturday afternoon in Bloemfontein in the Currie Cup.

They counted at least five possible scoring chances they did not take against the Griquas last weekend, and it’s something they want to rectify as they search for a first victory. WP find themselves at the foot of the Currie Cup log, and a victory over the Free State side could propel them up from the bottom.

However, it will be anything but an easy encounter at the Toyota Stadium (2 pm kick-off), although head coach Labeeb Levy believes they are continuously improving. He opted again for a youthful side, bringing in Junior Springbok captain Riley Norton at flanker and fellow U20 champion Gino Cupido at outside centre.

According to Levy, he hopes the hit out with the Stormers helped his side in terms of their accuracy as they look to topple the home side.

“We went against the Stormers guys this week, and when you play a talented bunch of players, they force you to focus more, and if you are not, they will punish you,” Levy said about the training against the United Rugby Championship side.

“It wasn’t full contact, like mimicking a match situation, but it was good parameters that we set up. We played against them for about 20 to 25 minutes, and there were a lot of positives. They also cut some of our plans down, which forced us to sharpen up.

“That session was very valuable, and hopefully we can see how it propels us into being just as sharp on Saturday.”

Levy says they’ve put extensive work into their set piece, as they feel teams target them in that area, and they will look to improve more against the Cheetahs.

Gary Porter, who steps in as captain in the place of the injured Zain Davids, said they won’t read too much into the struggles of the Cheetahs after the Bloemfontein side had to dig deep against the Sharks last weekend.

“You look at the result (against the Sharks) and you see what happened, but we are not basing the game on that,” Porter said.

“It is about focusing on our play, what we can do better and how we can control the game. As much as you look at other results, you can’t really base anything on them. This will be a huge task and will take an 80-plus minute performance if we want that win.”

Western Province: 15 Tristan Leyds, 14 Shilton van Wyk, 13 Gino Cupido, 12 Damian Markus, 11 Joel Leotlela, 10 Jurie Matthee, 9 Asad Moos, 8 Louw Nel, 7 Riley Norton, 6 Gideon van Wyk, 5 Gary Porter (captain), 4 Alex Groves, 3 Zachary Porthen, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Mhleli Khuzwayo. Replacements: 16 Luca Bakkes, 17 Oliver Reid, 18 Herman Lubbe, 19 Adam de Waal, 20 Enos Ndiao, 21 Ezekiel Ngobeni, 22 Luke Burger, 23 Jared Africa.