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WP still mulling over options

Gavin Rich - SuperSport

Johannesburg - With just three days to go until the kick-off of their must-win Absa Currie Cup fixture against the Sharks, Western Province are still mulling over their options.

With the Springbok conditioning phase having been concluded with a series of tests in Cape Town earlier this week, WP have four top players back in the mix for the Newlands clash with their coastal rivals.

And with the good news being that all the players who were put on the Bok programme have benefitted from it, there is nothing standing in the way of WP from choosing all four players should they decide to. The Boks who are available again after missing out the rest of the Currie Cup season are Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie, Ricky Januarie and Schalk Burger.

WP backline coach Robbie Fleck has told the media that “ideally all the Boks must start”, with the only possible odd man out there being Januarie. The scrumhalf has struggled for a long time with his form, and Dewaldt Duvenage has been in good nick while the Boks have been away and was the first choice at the end of the Super 14 season.

However there have been indications that Januarie has responded well to an ultimatum from Bok coach Peter de Villiers to get fit or ship out, and it is understood that he is one of the players who has benefitted from the conditioning programme. A fit Januarie could certainly be an asset to WP, though coach Allister Coetzee must be careful that he does not disrupt too much of the continuity with his selection.

It could come down to what kind of game WP want to play. Duvenage, like Willem de Waal, is not necessarily the best option if you are going for a policy weighted in favour of ball in hand attack, which is something that Province could well be leaning towards now that they have Habana and Fourie back.

Indeed, with Jean de Villiers having rejoined in September and Springbok fullback Conrad Jantjes fast regaining his best form after returning from injury, you could easily argue that the WP backline as it lines up on Saturday is stronger, at least on paper, than the unit that played in the Super 14.

There is an exception though, and it is an important one – De Waal is a very different flyhalf to Peter Grant, who is away on a six month sabbatical in Japan, and WP have not used the opportunity to properly blood the former Cheetahs under-21 star Lionel Cronje.

De Waal stands much deeper than Grant in taking the ball as first receiver, and this has the effect of taking away the impetus of some of WP’s attacking moves, something that has been noticeable in some of the recent games. What WP desperately need is a flyhalf who stands nearer the gainline and asks questions of opposing defences in his channel, thus bringing the outside backs more into the game.

If WP had a goalkicking fullback like Percy Montgomery, it might even be suggested that they could be better served than they are now by playing Jean de Villiers at pivot, something that would solve the pressing problem of having three quality international centres available for the match.

In the era when Alan Solomons was coaching Province, WP famously moved centre Christian Stewart to flyhalf for the business end of the season – with outstanding results. Of course, Stewart did have a better kicking boot than De Villiers, but De Villiers would at least be bring those around him into the game, something that De Waal does not do.

But with goalkicking sure to be crucial in the knock-out phases, De Waal is sure to remain in the WP No10, which means that Coetzee’s biggest dilemma is how to accommodate Fourie, Juan de Jongh and De Villiers in the same team.

Although WP training has been closed to the media this week, the smart money should be on Fourie playing on the wing, with Gio Aplon moving to fullback, where he was solid in the FNB Stadium Tri-Nations test against the All Blacks before being unfairly dropped for a rusty Francois Steyn the following week.

But it would seem unfair on Jantjes, who was outstanding in standing up to the Bulls’ high ball barrage at Loftus in the last match.

Possible WP team: Gio Aplon, Jaque Fourie, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Willem de Waal, Dewaldt Duvenage/Ricky Januarie, Duane Vermeulen, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger, Anton van Zyl, Adriaan Fondse, Brok Harris, Deon Fourie, JC Kritzinger.

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