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Pretoria – Western Province coach John Dobson admitted he was a relieved man as his side my heavy work of putting an under-par Blue Bulls side away in their Currie Cup semi-final in Pretoria on Friday evening.
The Blue Bulls lacked the lustre their fans had come to expect this season with the Capetonians eventually claiming a 23-18 victory after the teams were even at 9-9 going into the half-time break.
"I was disappointed with 9-9 at half-time so relief was the sentiment because the Bulls never stopped playing and they could have won it at the end," Dobson said after the match.
"But I thought we should have done more in the first half."
The Bulls were careless with their possession with the set-piece being a liability instead of an asset while Western Province did not capitalise on this.
Bulls prop Pierre Schoeman was sin-binned for 10 minutes for a dangerous tackle but the visitors only managed to draw the scores level during his absence.
Dobson nevertheless praised the Bulls for the way they have changed their playing philosophy over the season and for advancing this far in the competition with a relatively inexperienced side.
"This is a great result and we have to give Nollis Marais and the Bulls a lot of credit, they are playing a great style of rugby and it is an up and coming team," said Dobson.
"With a home semi-final they had a lot of belief so for us to win up here so credit to my team as well and we marginally deserved to win that match."
Marais in turn said his team should have played better while he bemoaned the lost opportunities.
"At the end of the day they took their opportunities and scored from them and when you start playing catch-up rugby you make mistakes and they force errors," Marais said.
Western Province took the game away from the home side with two tries that came courtesy of some individual flair by pocket rocket Cheslin Kolbe.
Kolbe score one of the tries after he brilliantly collected a kick while he also took a quick lineout which led to Jano Vermaak’s try.
The Cape Town side will now feature in their fourth consecutive Currie Cup final where they will be playing the winner of the Saturday's semi between the Golden Lions and the Free State Cheetahs.
