Sanlam Boland Cavaliers head coach Hawies Fourie expects his team to understand what it will be like to play in the Currie Cup later this year when they face the Airlink Pumas in this coming week’s SA Cup semi-final.
The Cavaliers beat the Eastern Province Elephants 36-22 in their final league game last weekend (10 May) and have a short time to prepare for the knockout clash, which is scheduled for Friday at 19:00 in the Mbombela Stadium.
Photo by Michael Sheehan.
The Wellington side faces a Pumas side that has won all nine league fixtures. Fourie knows his team must increase its physicality and intensity to topple opposing coach Jimmy Stonehouse’s charges.
“We are glad about the win over the weekend, but it was not an easy game. The circumstances were difficult, with a strong wind blowing throughout the game, and it made it difficult to control the ball, win our lineouts, and to kick from hand,” Fourie explains.
“It meant that we had to adapt, and, to my liking, we made too many handling errors in the first half, along with conceding possession. In the second half, we conceded too many penalties, and we could not take advantage of having the wind at our backs by trying to pin the opposition in their half of the field, due to those penalties.
“It was far from a pretty performance, but we did enough to end amongst the top four teams in the SA Cup and qualify.”
Albeit the struggles in Gqeberha, Fourie is glad to have the monkey off their backs in terms of Currie Cup promotion, with the Cavaliers now entirely focused on going out and testing themselves against a Pumas team that are Currie Cup regulars and have even won provincial rugby’s most significant prize three seasons ago.
Of the challenge that awaits his men in Nelspruit, Fourie says: “[Top four] was our goal from the beginning of the season, and now that we have qualified for the Currie Cup Premier Division, I am immensely proud of the players and the effort everyone has put in during the season.
“We have reaped the rewards of our hard work, and from the very start, it was a team effort where we relied on all the members in our squad. There were a lot of injuries throughout the competition, and there are still players who will be out for a while, but we could rely on every member of the squad.
“Now it is time to go and get back on the saddle, where playing in a SA Cup semi-final and [hopefully] a final will be on the same level as playing in the Currie Cup Premier Division.
“We will need to improve in quite a few areas of our game if we want to compete against those teams, and it is the type of games that will show us what lies in wait ahead of the start of the Currie Cup campaign in July.”
The Boland boss, who coached the Toyota Cheetahs to a Currie Cup title in 2023, says he is looking forward to returning to the top provincial competition with a Cavaliers side that last played against the country’s best in 2016.
“We don’t just want to be a team that is playing in a Currie Cup but one that competes and especially puts those teams that will be travelling to play us in Wellington under huge pressure.
“We know we can expect a lot of support from the Boland community, and we want to go out and make them proud to be associated with the Sanlam Boland Cavaliers and inspire youngsters at every level of the game within the boundaries of the union. So, they can aspire to play on the same level.”