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Cape Town - Western Province left Kings Park with a full-house of five points on Saturday night, but not before a stern half-time talking to from their coaching staff.
The Capetonians trailed the Sharks 17-10 at half-time, before taking control of proceedings in the second half - a three-try blitz between minutes 42 and 53 doing the business for them as they triumphed by 37-27.
“There were some stern words at half-time, we made too many mistakes - like dropping some ball - and our discipline was poor,” coach Dobson told the WP Rugby website.
“We had to change (at half-time). We were getting beaten by their kicking game, so we had to be more enterprising in the second half. We knew about their kicking game but we had to get going in terms of our attack.
“I wasn’t ever too worried, but we were also guilty of allowing them a bit too much momentum at one stage in the first half.
“I think, at times, we made things hard for ourselves out there, but that’s how we want to play - absorb some pressure and then try and get some momentum on attack.”
This victory - WP’s third bonus point win of the season - was their second win in succession, having lost two games on the road beforehand, and sees them trailing the second-placed Blue Bulls by just five log points.
“When we lost those two games we had to change our course a bit. We were playing a team based largely on last year’s Currie Cup, but we took a view - given our results - of building a team a bit, which has seen guys like Oli Kebble, Rob du Preez and Huw Jones getting more exposure,” said Dobson.
“So we (also) thought, ‘Okay, if we’re not going to grind our way to a few wins, let’s start playing some more rugby too’. It seems to be working, but we’re by no means the finished article.
“Rugby is a crazy sport... In the second week I was quite a good coach, but after losing to the Bulls in Pretoria I should’ve been fired! I can’t sit here as the messiah either, we need to string a few games together first in a row.
“I think the Lions are the best team in this year’s competition, but a few results went our way elsewhere and that’s also why tonight’s win (for us) was so important to us in terms of our semi-final aspirations.
“I think we have the team and the personnel in what could still become a bit of a dogfight (on the log). A guy like Juan de Jongh will make a massive difference when he comes back, hopefully he will be back sooner than initially anticipated and we won today without Springboks like Nizaam Carr and Jaco Taute.”
Hard-working No 6 flank Chris Cloete walked off with the official man-of-the-match honours, after yet another busy outing, whilst flyhalf Robert du Preez - who contributed 14 points - impressed in his first-ever Currie Cup start.
When asked about those individual performances, Dobson said: “Chris (Cloete) did well, his work-rate is phenomenal. I think he could maybe have been a bit more accurate at times, but he certainly has a bright future.
“I was very happy with Rob (du Preez), aside from those two kicks (directly out), he did really well and (he) brought a lot to our attack.”
In other good news for WP, there were no new injury concerns from the weekend. A full injury report will be released later on Monday.
