Cape Town — Western Province will not just flick the switch and unleash all of their available United Rugby Championship players in the last two Currie Cup games over the next couple of weeks.
Instead, they will scrap it out with the Lions (fifth), Bulls (sixth), and Pumas (third) for a place in the top four.
Luckily for Province, they still have their fate in their own hands in fourth place, meaning two good bonus-points victories over Griquas on Friday in Kimberley, and Sharks in their final round-robin game, will in all likelihood secure them a place in the semi-finals of the domestic competition.
And after the Stormers were pipped to the URC title by Munster on Saturday, the players who will not be in camp with the Springboks for the week, are available, but only a handful will be used by WP coach John Dobson to try and secure a spot in the semis.
“Some of the guys in the Currie Cup side have been playing well, so we can’t just come in there and say ‘sorry, your season is over here comes Ruben van Heerden’, it will be a mix,” Dobson confirmed the plans for the last two fixtures.
“We will give the Currie Cup a scrap now and have a go. We probably have to win both our games. It was always our plan to scrape into the semis of the competition. We knew it would be tough.
“The truth is, we have been playing URC rugby for three to four weeks longer than some of the other franchises. And they’ve URC’d up. That is tough for us.
“But, and I don’t want this to sound wrong, to win the SA Shield - which is the best team home and away in the local derbies - by 15 points, domestically I feel comfortable where we are.
“The Currie Cup has got massive emotion and pride, we will give it a go. But it won’t be at the expense of the guys who have been fighting (in the local competition.) We will mix it up
“We will drop some in (the squad) this week, and maybe more in the week thereafter.”
Wings Leolin Zas and Angelo Davids, fullback Clayton Blommetjies, and flanks Marcel Theunissen and Willie Engelbrecht could strengthen the WP team ahead of their trip to Kimberley for Friday's clash.
If captain Jean-Luc du Plessis does not recover from his injury in time, Dobson could play Blommetjies at No 10 or the promising Jurie Matthee who had a good outing against the Lions last Friday after replacing Du Plessis at halftime.
IOL Sport