Tristan Leyds’ second-half cameo at flyhalf was one of the few positives for coach Labeeb Levy as a youthful WP team opened the Currie Cup with a heavy loss.
Tristan Leyds’ second-half cameo at flyhalf was one of the few positives for coach Labeeb Levy as a youthful WP team opened the Currie Cup with a heavy loss.
Province were outgunned by a much more clinical and disciplined Vodacom Bulls side at the Cape Town Stadium, going down 48-23 in their season opener.
Levy named a match-23 largely comprised of Sevens Springboks, under 21, Varsity Cup and club players while the Bulls could boast a few more players with Vodacom URC experience. That was evident, especially in the first half as WP were starved of possession and had their scrums and lineouts disrupted.
We didn’t start the game on our terms. We lost our very first lineout which had a ripple effect and eventually led to them scoring. We lost another two lineouts after that. So we never actually had the ball in the first 30 minutes.”
With a massive half-time deficit, Levy was encouraged by how his team tightened up their performance in the second half, especially with the introduction of Blitzboks playmaker Leyds at flyhalf.
“Kyle [Smith] wasn’t bad. I think he showed good composure, he kicked well to poles and created some good opportunities as well. But with Tristan, we just felt at that point that we needed to roll the dice and we did create some opportunities,” said the Province mentor.
“The positive was that the second half score was 10-10 and at 38-23, we had opportunities to score which would’ve put us in striking range and possibly transfer the pressure onto them.”
Levy could get an experienced option at flyhalf back ahead of their trip to Johannesburg to face the Lions. Jurie Mathee missed the season-opener due to concussion.
“Jurie will do another concussion test on Monday and obviously following that, we will make a call. He’s an experienced 10, and will become part of the conversation following his protocols on Monday.” said Levy.
The coach is also sweating over the fitness of Blitzboks speedster Quewin Nortjie, who limped off the field in the first half.
“Looks like his hamstring went. We’ll wait for the full medical report on Sunday but he really is a big loss because I felt that if he had stayed on, he’s quite elusive and knows how to beat his man and was a big part of our plan.”
