Deon Fourie may not get the opportunity to lift the Absa Currie Cup for a second consecutive time at Newlands on Saturday.
DHL Western Province coach Allister Coetzee confirmed at an early Monday morning press conference at the High Performance Centre in Bellville that his talismanic skipper, who led the team to victory as underdogs in last year’s decider in Durban, may be a doubtful starter for the final against the Sharks. There is also an element of doubt over lock De Kock Steenkamp.
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“There are two players I am a bit concerned about, Deon being the one I am most concerned about,” said Coetzee.
“The doctor will see two players today, one of them being Deon, who suffered a neck muscle spasm. We are going to have to look at it, and we will decide at a meeting later what we will do should Deon be ruled out of the match against the Sharks. De Kock is a lesser concern, he just has a few bumps and bruises that are a legacy of the tough rugby he has been playing lately. I am sure he will be okay.”
Losing a skipper who has led the team through the regular season to top of the log and into the final would in the normal course of events be regarded as a major crisis for any team. But WP have so many bases covered at the moment, and both the captaincy and the loose-forwards are among those areas where change can be made without it having too much impact.
Fourie has been one of the form players in the WP loose-trio for the duration of the Currie Cup, but Schalk Burger is back in the game and has been contributing during his cameo appearances as a replacement. Coetzee said he would like to think Burger would be ready to start should Fourie be ruled out, though that wouldn’t necessarily be the move that he would make.
“Would like to think Schalk can start a game if needed, and we will look at that option, but I think the balance we have at the moment is spot on. Schalk coming on later in the match and adding his experience has counted a lot in our recent matches. I would play Schalk if he was ready to play for 60 minutes, but I am not sure if that is the case.
“Our other option is to keep Schalk on the bench and move Siya Kolisi to No6 in Deon’s place should he not make it, with Rynhardt Elstadt coming into the side as the blindside flanker.”
Elstadt missed selection for the squad that played in the semi-final last weekend, but is ready to play again, and a back-row consisting of Kolisi, Elstadt and Duane Vermeulen would certainly be a physical unit capable of dominating the Sharks in the loose exchanges. And WP would still have Burger available off the bench, as well as Michael Rhodes, who is in good form and covers both flank and lock.
There should also be no problems with the captaincy should Fourie miss the final as Jean de Villiers is the national captain and Burger also has plenty of leadership experience. Steenkamp has also led WP on occasions this season, most notably when they beat the Blue Bulls with 14 men at Loftus in September.
But if Fourie is ruled out WP will feel fortunate that the citing commissioner didn’t revisit the Scarra Ntubeni tackle that saw the Province hooker yellow carded in the semi-final against the MTN Golden Lions. Had Ntubeni been suspended, Fourie would have been expected to move to hooker.
“The period for citing is now over and I haven’t heard from our chief executive so we are assuming Scarra is fully available for this week,” said Coetzee.