Positives and negatives for DHL WP Under-19 boss

Aug 20 • General News • 1565 Views • Comments Off on Positives and negatives for DHL WP Under-19 boss

DHL Western Province Under-19 coach Nazeem Adams has taken both the positives and the negatives from his team’s recent outings, as the 2014 Absa Provincial Under-19 champions head to Pretoria this weekend.

The DHL WP Under-19 team will get a busy day of three North v South provincial matches underway at Loftus Versfeld this Saturday (August 22) at 14h45, when they face up to the Bulls’ Under-19s.

“Playing against the Bulls, at any level, is always an exciting fixture for any DHL Western Province team,” said Adams to the www.wprugby.com website.

“The Bulls are a tough nut to crack, especially at home, and we’re certainly not reading anything into their home loss to the Leopards last weekend. They will be up for this game, knowing full well how this result could affect the overall standings.”

Just three points separate DHL WP (in second place) and the Bulls (third position) going into this weekend’s seventh round of Absa Provincial U19 action and Adams admitted: “Winning away against the Bulls would be quite a big result for us in terms of entrenching ourselves in second place (on the log).

“The Kings are eight points ahead of us with a game in hand, but second place is up for grabs and a win on Saturday would see us open up a bit of a gap between second and third place.”

Regular captain and No.8 Jaco Coetzee is back in the mix, after missing last week’s dramatic 29-29 draw against the Free State Cheetahs with a slight concussion, whilst star lock Eduard Zandberg is back from a calf strain which saw him miss two weeks of action.

Unfortunately, star flanks Saud Abrahams and Mervano da Silva are both unavailable this week, Da Silva having also sat out last weekend, but replacement hooker Ruan Brits is back from injury to take his place on the bench once again.

“We went into last week’s game (against the Cheetahs) with most of our first-choice pack missing, and we lost Percy Mngadi, Saud and Daniel Maree during the course of the match, so to have Jaco and Eduard back this week is a big boost,” said Adams.

“The weather conditions were not good at all last week, which didn’t help things, but the fact of the matter is that we had the game in our grasp and then let it slip. That said, the guys showed great tenacity to rescue the draw – and very nearly a win – with a brave set-play in the game’s final act.

“We’ve had a good chat about our in-game slumps and it’s something we’re certainly aware of and working on,” added Adams.

“The obvious negative is that slump just after half-time, which has happened a few times this season, but there’s certainly plenty of positives in our games up until now (too). We hope to take our positives and turn any of our negatives into positives on what should be a dry and fast Loftus Versfeld.”

The DHL WP Under-19 team for Saturday (v Blue Bulls, away) is as follows:

15. Tiaan Swanepoel
14. Duncan Saal
13. Eduan Keyter
12. Edrich Venter (vice-captain)
11. Edwill van der Merwe
10. Aidynn Cupido
9. Paul de Wet
8. Jaco Coetzee (captain)
7. Daniel Maree
6. Mitchell Carstens
5. Eduard Zandberg
4. Jaco Willemse
3. Michael Kumbirai
2. Percy Mngadi
1. Derrick Marais
Replacements:
16. Ruan Brits
17. Adriaan Geldenhuys
18. Jerome Korf
19. Gary Porter
20. Iver Aanhuizen
21. Herschel Jantjies
22. Justin Heunis
23. Gerard Pieterse
Referee: Ricus van der Hoven