Assistant coach Dawie Snyman said DHL Western Province will reflect on and assess their individual performances against the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Renzo du Plessis scored a hat-trick of tries as the Lions strengthened their Currie Cup playoffs bid with a huge win over WP at Ellis Park. The Pride raced into a 28-8 half-time lead, before completing a bonus-point 41-22 victory at Ellis Park.
For WP, it was a fifth defeat of the campaign and the Capetonians must regroup to face the Sharks XV in Cape Town on Saturday with three rounds left of the regular season.
“The Lions were good and it’s never easy coming to Ellis Park,” Snyman told reporters post-match. “We made three, four errors in the first half that took the game away, and then started the second half by losing a lineout and they scored from that.
“Those mistakes are costly up here.
“In the first half we conceded too many penalties, but when we had the ball I felt we put the Lions under pressure, we just didn’t have enough of that. The second half followed a similar pattern.”
RECAP: Lethal Lions put WP to the sword
Veteran prop Steven Kitshoff completed 51 minutes for WP on Saturday, having not played since May, in a good sign for the Springboks and DHL Stormers.
On the value of Kitshoff and skipper Scarra Ntubeni for a youthful WP side, Snyman adds, “It’s great to have such experienced players around, and you can see the youngsters speaking with them and learning.
“It’s good for them to experience playing with those players in a match situation like [Saturday], where things aren’t going their way, seeing how they conduct and carry themselves.”
A late victory for the Sharks in Bloemfontein on Saturday saw JP Pietersen’s charges climb into the Currie Cup top four and close the gap on the Cheetahs to just three log points.
Snyman highlighted the challenge that awaits WP this week, yet shares that there will be personnel changes as the Cape outfit prepares for the Vodacom URC kicking off in September.
“We’re back at home, and it’s again part of the process of preparing a few players for the URC,” he said.
“We’ll make a few changes and give a few players more gametime. We’ll take the positives from the Lions game and focus on that as well as look at the individual errors.”
Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
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