Trampled but not out

Losing against a star-studded Western Province team is not the end of the world and there is still much for his players to look forward to, EP Elephants coach Ryan Felix said.

Felix was talking after his team crashed to a heavy 59-12 defeat against the defending champions in their opening SuperSport Rugby Challenge at the Wolfson Stadium in Kwazakhele.

The Elephants now have to regroup before the second game of their campaign against the SWD Eagles at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

This game will kick off at 12.15pm and is a curtain-raiser to the Southern Kings versus Cheetahs PRO14 clash.

After going through their campaign unbeaten last year, WP showed once again that they will be the team to beat as they ran in nine sparkling tries.

The strong WP team, which included fringe Stormers and Maties Varsity Cup players, had too much firepower for the outgunned EP side which included 10 Southern Kings PRO14 players.

It was always going to be an uphill battle for EP coach Felix and his hastily assembled squad who did not even have a warm-up game to fine-tune ahead of the opener. “The first problem we had was that we lacked some game time,” Felix said.

“The second thing was our defensive effort was bad and we did not have good line speed to put Western Province under pressure. Thirdly, WP is a good championship- winning team who are well coached. They have been together for two or three years and were unbeaten last year.

“Here and there we had some good chances, but on the other hand, our decision-making was also very bad.

Felix said his team would now work hard to prepare for Saturday’s game against the Eagles.
“I told the players this is not the end of the world and this is our first game as a group together.

“There are positives we can take out of the game going forward.

“In defence the structure is there, but we lacked line speed. We were sitting and waiting for the opposition to attack us.”

At this stage it is not known how many of the PRO14 squad will be released for the Eagles clash.

Against WP, the Elephants were captained by Dries van Schalkwyk, who was in the Italian side that toppled the Boks in Florence two years ago.

Other Kings players in the side were Allandre van Rooyen, Entienne Swanepoel, Giant Mtyanda, Eitel Bredenkamp, Jurie van Vuuren, Freddie Ngoza and Freddie Muller.

The Kings players on the bench were Siya Mdaka and Juan-Phillip Smith.

“We will know later in the week which Southern Kings players are available. We will have a break on Monday and take stock,” Felix said.

The Elephants are expected to name their team on Thursday.