Assistant coach Norman Laker relishes the opportunity to “prove a point” when Western Province and the Vodacom Bulls clash in the Currie Cup on Saturday.
This week’s showdown is the first in back-to-back games at Cape Town Stadium between the traditional rivals, who lock horns next Saturday in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarter-finals in a rematch of the inaugural URC final won by the Stormers.
John Dobson’s charges are on a three-game winning run in all competitions this season against the Bulls, with a youthful WP 41-33 victors over a URC-laden Bulls outfit at Loftus Versfeld in the second week of the 2023 Currie Cup.
With an eye on next week’s URC playoff in the Mother City, Dobson and White are likely to field their regular Currie Cup lineups. Yet speaking during a WP conference on Monday, Laker insisted the North-South derby will remain “emotional”.
“Any Bulls side that comes to Cape Town, or a Province team that goes to Loftus, will be in for a tough game,” the defence coach said. “A North-South derby is… you can call it an emotional [occasion] and everyone is wanting to prove a point.
“For us, it is nice to play back-to-back games [against the Bulls], but we’re purely focused on this Saturday’s game for the Currie Cup at the moment.
“Jake has taken over after round four and we played them in round two at Loftus, and there’s obviously similarities. The Bulls are quite aligned when it comes to the URC and Currie Cup teams, and both teams are coached by Jake.”
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Following last weekend’s results, the Bulls have climbed to fifth on the log and are one point above sixth-placed WP, and Laker expects an improved performance from the Capetonians this week.
“Both the teams will be desperate for a win. It will be important for us to put in a performance for 80 minutes. Over the last couple of weeks, we played well for about 50 to 60 minutes. We want to improve on that,” he said.
“The North-South derby remains an important one for any WP and Bulls team. There are small things that we need to get better at than we were for the past two weekends against the Cheetahs and Pumas.”
Laker also gave updates on injured quartet Seabelo Senatla (concussion), Suleiman Hartzenberg, Ruben van Heerden and Ernst van Rhyn (all knee).
“[Hartzenberg] I know went for a scan on his knee and we await the full report. Seabelo was obviously carried off and I’m not 100 percent sure about him [yet] but Ruben and Ernst were both seeing a specialist this afternoon, so we’re waiting for the reports,” he added.
“I spoke to Ernst and he felt good but how you feel and what a scan is saying are two different things.”
Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images