Jean de Villiers (File)

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Just over two weeks ago WP were comfortably at the top of the log and the talk was about their bid for a home final, now all that has changed, with the Cape side being part of a three team log-jam with the Cheetahs and the Blue Bulls and no longer even too assured of even a place in the semi-finals.

There have been a few things that have gone wrong with WP to contribute to their slide, and coach Allister Coetzee, while not wanting to make excuses, was right to point to the massive wave of injuries that has cut through the team in the past few weeks.

Just as the Stormers were extraordinarily fortunate with injuries during the recent Super 14, where they had the core of the first choice team available for the entire competition, in the domestic season they appear to have been hit by freakish bad luck.

When Nick Koster was forced the day before the match against the Lions, it was just the latest in a long line of late withdrawals in recent matches, and when Frikkie Welsh and Tim Whitehead were laid out early in the Coca-Cola Park tussle, that was not the first time such a double injury blow had hit them during a match either.

Experienced hooker Tiaan Liebenberg is already out for another five weeks, and the accumulative midfield injuries meant inexperienced UCT backline player Marcel Brache had to make his debut at outside centre as a replacement against the Lions. He got welcomed to big time rugby by being run over almost immediately, and “run over” is certainly what happened to Pieter Louw when he found himself in Bismarck du Plessis’s path in a recent match against the Sharks.

Louw has recovered sufficiently from that injury to come back into the frame this week, and WP don’t appear to have any loose forward worries because Koster is expected to be available too. Remember Francois Louw has been back in the WP mix now for a couple of weeks after being dropped by the Boks, so WP even now have back-row options.

But it is at the back where WP have struggled recently, and many will see the anticipated Lionel Cronje selection ahead of Willem de Waal as long overdue. De Waal did more than his bit in getting WP to the front of the league race early in the competition, but in the three defeats his tendency to take the ball deep and inability to ignite the backs has been an obvious problem.

The return of Springboks Jean de Villiers, Juan de Jongh and Gio Aplon means that Province will have more strength out wide in the upcoming matches, and opponents can expect to come up against a WP team that will be growing its game more than it has in a while and which will be heading in a different direction to where it was in the first round.

Another change mooted for the Leopards fixture is the selection of Conrad Hoffmann at fullback, with Conrad Jantjes switching to wing in place of the injured Welsh. That will mean Aplon gets to play on the left wing, where he was good for the Springboks as a replacement in the second half against Australia.