Collective will won it for WP
29 Oct 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his Business Day newspaper column, says Western Province lifted the Currie Cup in Durban because they played as a team.
World Cup-winning coach Jake White was often quoted as saying the 15 best players don’t necessarily make for the best XV. Rugby, White argued, was a team game and he viewed the team as a collective.
Western Province, in beating the Sharks in the Currie Cup final in Durban, won it with a team effort. Individuals were inspirational, but it was the collective will of the team that saw them overturn a 12-3 deficit to win the title for the first time in 11 years.
Springbok and Bulls legend Victor Matfield, in summary of Province’s last minute semi-final win against the Lions a week earlier, suggested the 20m rolling maul was massive in the context of the team dynamic and that it could finally see Province turn individual potential into team reward.
There has always been a feeling among players up north that the delights of playing for Western Province (and the Stormers in Super Rugby) give players a celebrity like status in Cape Town and that the individual often stands taller than any team collective.
Brilliant individuals played for Province and the Stormers in the last decade but as a team they always fell short of success in the Currie Cup and Super Rugby. Something always seemed to be missing and Matfield felt the way this Province team worked for the win against the Lions and the way eight forwards worked in unison and refused to be beaten in the last minute of the game was something he had not seen from a Province team.
Just maybe, said Matfield, this is the start of something special.
Just maybe it is because the semi-final was not won on individual brilliance and neither was the final. Sure there inspiring individual performances, especially from lock Eben Etzebeth, but the most inspiring aspect was how the players believed in each other and played with the cohesion of players who believed that to win it they had to believe in the qualities of their team-mates.
Province were underdogs and not expected to win so they also had an advantage in that there wasn’t expectation. It does make a final easier when so few anticipate victory, even if so many hope for the victory.
The Sharks were expected to win. Their match 22 had superior pedigree. They demolished the Bulls in the semi-final and they were playing at home.
Their players also expected to win and if anything mentally they didn’t give the final the necessary respect. They will dispute this but they played like a team who believed the opposition wasn’t good enough to win. I’d argue their focus was wrongly on who they were playing instead of the fact that they were playing in a final.
The intensity and edge needed to compete and win a final wasn’t there from the Sharks. All the edge came from the visitors.
Supporters will ask how is it possible not to pitch for a final? It’s certainly not through a lack of desire. Experienced coaches always warn of the danger of players being too hyped in their preparation and mentally playing the game in the week and being drained come match day. This wasn’t one of those occasions because there wouldn’t have been doubt within the Sharks camp that they could be successful.
The Sharks coaches would have feared complacency, but no matter the caution a player has to believe he could lose if he is to ensure he doesn’t. I just don’t think it ever occurred to the Sharks players they could lose and sport continues to produces finals in which the overwhelming favourites get done in a one-off because the desire to win is not matched by the fear of potentially losing.
The better team on the day won and it’s hard to argue with a result that goes to the team that gets it right. Province got it right in the final. They deserve every ovation for the performance.
I also think Bok coach Heyneke Meyer and his selectors deserve applause for being bold enough to select London-based Saracens hooker Schalk Brits in the Bok squad.
It sends a positive message that if you play well enough you will get selected, regardless of where you are based or how old you are.
Brits has played well enough, especially in the last two seasons. Equally so the Toulouse-based former Bulls prop Gurthro Steenkamp, who is another deserving national call-up.
659 Comments
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29 Oct 2012, 14:22 pm
When I saw the Sharks team I thought they had erred in dropping Cooper and Deysel…..
Essentially they removed 2 of their ‘ to the ball ‘ players in 1 foul swoop opening the door to Deon Fourie and Vermeulen….
Big mistake.
29 Oct 2012, 14:24 pm
@Provvas-281: trophy count, tells you Liverpool is the most decorated team
29 Oct 2012, 14:24 pm
@Provvas-299: ferrari of Soccer and the Brazil of world cups in soccer
29 Oct 2012, 14:24 pm
@Sasuke-296:
I see we just managed a 3 pointer against QPR.
Didn’t watch the game but I believe it was a controversial Arteta goal.
29 Oct 2012, 14:25 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-300: No gag reflex then?
29 Oct 2012, 14:26 pm
@grant10-301: Burden will be having Etzebeth nightmares for weeks to come. We won three lineouts the whole game!
29 Oct 2012, 14:27 pm
@grant10-301: Absolutely, agree 100% Besides, these 2 were really the in form players for the Sharks, for Alberts who i think’s Form is in a bit of a slump, same story with Burden
29 Oct 2012, 14:28 pm
@Skeppie-305:
Nope. The guppies choke and gag when it matters…..not us.
29 Oct 2012, 14:29 pm
@Jeraldjay-304: Yeah it was a tough hard fought game and we were lucky to come away with a 3 pointer. But I am glad for the win, hopefully it will take us out of our slump!
Oh and Wilshere and Sagna started. Wilshere was classy on the ball and forced a save from Cesar early on. He didnt lose any of his confidence. Tough to drop Jenkinson just like that after the kind of form he is in.
29 Oct 2012, 14:29 pm
its easy to say this in hindsight. burden has been such a dominant and elusive player for the sharks in recent times, and we all know how good alberts can be esp with ball in hand. if cooper had started and had a bad game we would have blamed plum for starting such an inexperienced player in a final
29 Oct 2012, 14:30 pm
White people like Gunther would not understand this.Back in the late 70′s and 80′s growing up on the Cape Flats you either supported Liverpool or Manchester United.I supported United for most of the 26 years then when the club could not win a league title.It makes it sweeter that the club is so successful now….a bit like how i feel now that WP have won CC title number 33 after 11 years without one.
29 Oct 2012, 14:30 pm
@Fern-298:
Well the fact that he is, as you describe by his exploits and rugby playing days, probably in his 40′s, that makes him even more of an absolute total wop.
I have no idea what a kinghit is, or a ‘kunghut’ as you’d Durbaners would pronounce, but I imagine that to be a blindside judging by his character. Try that in Benoni and see how far it gets you!
29 Oct 2012, 14:32 pm
@Sasuke-309:
I’ll watch the game tonight.
At least its a better start than last season.
29 Oct 2012, 14:32 pm
@uhu-310: Cooper sucked against the Bulls in the semi though…..be honest, the lineouts were already a shambles then.
Burden coming in was never going to be a sure fire solution.
Between Cooper, Burden and Bresler (your lineout mastermind and caller) the lineouts should have been sorted before the semi finals already….never mind the final.
29 Oct 2012, 14:32 pm
How did ET end up supporting Leeds?
29 Oct 2012, 14:32 pm
Boks must also be careful now with Flo possibly out…..The Irish have a wonderful Fetcher….O Brien I think the okes name….
Best we get D Fourie in quick sticks…..or we going to be in trouble.
I would also start Schalk Brits against the Irish…….got to compete at the breakdown and Brits better at it than Chilli and Strauss…
29 Oct 2012, 14:33 pm
@pedigree#295
He means that JdJ should never have been replaced by JdV at 12, after the season he had alongside JF in 2010.
29 Oct 2012, 14:33 pm
suck it up wankeroons
29 Oct 2012, 14:34 pm
@Dazzler-312:
Benoni?
Bwhahahaha!
Which club do you play for,and in what div?
29 Oct 2012, 14:34 pm
another decade of pain suckers
29 Oct 2012, 14:34 pm
@Provvas-299: Not at all.We went for 26 years without winning a title and only started winning multiple titles in from the 90′s onwards.Before that,most of the people i knew supported united for 15 to twenty years already.We all hated Liverpool then…and still do.
29 Oct 2012, 14:35 pm
@Skeppie-306: Eben can become a great No. 5 lock.
29 Oct 2012, 14:35 pm
@uhu-310: True….but its about balance….and the sharks pack glaringly lacked deck cadets…
29 Oct 2012, 14:36 pm
@gunther-315: You always had a few swimming upstream
29 Oct 2012, 14:37 pm
@wp. winning nothing never looked so easy-70:
Thanks boet.
When are you going to change the nic?
I think it should now read: SHARKS.winning nothing never looked so easy
Three finals in a row now, neh?
29 Oct 2012, 14:38 pm
Province would have lost the game if Duvenhage and JDV were fit to play, thank god they were injured
29 Oct 2012, 14:38 pm
no backbreaker Frans and no bissiebomb and the capfags sing halleluha
29 Oct 2012, 14:38 pm
@mxhosa-317: Thanks. I had no idea where he was coming from with that. I happen to agree with that. I was not the most excited person in CT when Jean Div headed back here……
Ditto for the Stormers backline this year actually. We looked most dangerous with Habana at 13 and Juan at 12.
If I were Juan though, 13 is where I would demand to play from hereon in, as that is the ONE position in the Bok backline that Meyer doesn’t as yet have a favoured love child
(No ways anyone is going to move Frans Steyn out of that 12 jersey….while Meyer’s around)
13…is up for grabs, and Juan needs to make it his own on this EOYT, and if Meyer doesn’t start him there well I will be dishing out my usual Meyer insults (just in bold)
29 Oct 2012, 14:39 pm
@gunther-315:
Leeds have actually won a premiership title. Something Liverpool hasn’t achieved yet.
But they have fallen off the wagon and haven’t managed to get back to the top.
29 Oct 2012, 14:39 pm
@nama1-325:
super 15 finalist brokeback
29 Oct 2012, 14:40 pm
@mopingshark-327: Ohdearfucklesticks slit your wrists already why don’t you? I hate it when wannabe suicidals drag it out…..
29 Oct 2012, 14:41 pm
@nama1-325: Losing finals never looked so easy???fFour super finals and about a dozen CC finals should just about do it for that new nick.
29 Oct 2012, 14:41 pm
@wnbb-324:
@Jeraldjay-329:
Iindeed.
I actually had capo pegged as a millwall supporter.
29 Oct 2012, 14:42 pm
@Jeraldjay-313: Ja much better. We can beat Man this weekend. Our midfield is much stronger than theirs.
29 Oct 2012, 14:42 pm
one trophy in 11 years even the lions do beter
29 Oct 2012, 14:42 pm
@Fern-319:
I play more for social reasons than anything else. I just love the game, and am on the wrong side of 30!
But I play 2nd team for my club in the Predator League, which I believe is the Lions top league apparently. Not positive though. (I’m not originally from here)
29 Oct 2012, 14:43 pm
yeah… don’t think it was so much of burden throwing in badly…
just eben competing excellently…
also doing the matfield thing and getting into the minds of the opposition… think this affected the rest of burden’s game…
but skeppie’s correct… burden gonna be ‘maring about eben rising phoenix-like on the back of his tightly closed eyelids for years to come…
29 Oct 2012, 14:44 pm
eben has one good game and now he is the breeker
29 Oct 2012, 14:44 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-328: Quite right, I have always felt JdJ was a one trick player but there is no denying his pace and step. Something we desperately need in the Boks.
Play him but please no Mvovo or FH .. its time we played a specialist wing who can read a game …. we will miss Habs !!
29 Oct 2012, 14:44 pm
@Jeraldjay-329: Imagine being a Liverpool and WP fan, its been tough, 22yrs and 10yrs without the Cup that matters most.
29 Oct 2012, 14:46 pm
@ufo-337: Correct.Jumping at two Eben scared the bejaysus out of Burden and his jumpers.
29 Oct 2012, 14:46 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-331:
jump already
29 Oct 2012, 14:46 pm
@mopingshark-338:
i’m sure when eben wins the best young player of the year award that the citation will read…
“he had one good game…!”
29 Oct 2012, 14:46 pm
@Dazzler-336:
I just gave you some background info on who the Duikers are/were
So maybe back in the day he talked the talk and walked the walk.
Good luck with your midlife crisis.
29 Oct 2012, 14:47 pm
@uhu-310: I don’t think any personnel would have been the difference on Saturday. We got a right proper p03sklap by a team that refused to give an inch. This is the sort of mindset that needs to exist for the Boks, the boks should play every Test the way Province played on Saturday. The Cup and the glory of winning the competition were irrelevant. Those players just played to win at every tackle, every ruck, every carry, really it warmed the cockles of my heart to see that amount of passion and determination.
29 Oct 2012, 14:47 pm
@wnbb-341:
and the crowd all said…
amen brother…!!
29 Oct 2012, 14:48 pm
@mopingshark-338: make that one and while you at it you can add sommer n lekker dozen or two dozen to that.Have a nice day….oh,and i love your nick
29 Oct 2012, 14:48 pm
@XhosaKid-340:
hehehe…
now you’re just being mean…!!
may THIS will be liverpool’s year…!!
29 Oct 2012, 14:49 pm
@mopingshark-330:
Feels k@k to be a loser, ne? But you guys were really k@k
29 Oct 2012, 14:49 pm
A lot of complaining about the ref, which is surprising as i thought SA had the best refs and the only time an SA team was cheated was when either an NZ team were playing, when an NZ ref was reffing or if Paddy O’Brien decided it was time to get the Jarpies. So what happened on the weekend? Do refs sometimes miss things or is there a conspiracy afoot?
If it makes you feel any better, Aucklanders are half blaming the ref for losing the NPC final too. Congratulations to the WP fans and condolences to the Sharks no matter the circumstances.
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