KZN aiming for 3rd at Craven Week
KZN are aiming for a 3rd place finish at the 2015 Craven Week after losing 23-22 to Eastern Province yesterday.
Three second half tries saw KZN come within a point of EP but it was too little too late.
But it was ill-discipline that cost the boys from Natal. A yellow card early in the first half, followed by a red card to prop Hendrik Prinsloo meant KZN had to fight with 14 men on the park for the better part of 50 minutes.
Prinsloo was binned for a tip-tackle – which on closer inspection looked nasty. However it seemed that the prop did not intend to do any damage.
KZN assistant coach Mike Vowles spoke to East Coast Radio today, and admitted that ill-discipline had been the deciding factor in the match.
“Discipline is massively important in any rugby game and especially in a competition at Craven Week where your margin for error is small. Ill-discipline is going to cost you. Our wing Victor Foster’s yellow card was the turning point in the first half, up until that point we had controlled the game. A yellow and a red card in the period of five minutes and then having 13 guys on the park made it very difficult,” Vowles said.
“It certainly had an influence; it meant we had to take off one of our loose forwards who was a master of slowing the ball down at the breakdown. It definitely impacted the way we wanted to go about our business.”
Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Natal outfit made a strong comeback in the second half. It has been somewhat of a trend, after they had secured a last-gasp win over the Lions in their opening clash of the tournament.
Vowles put it down to a close-knit team environment that has developed over the last three weeks.
“The standout feature with this Craven Week side has been the team environment and the bond that the players have between each other. They’re a special bunch of kids and from when we had our camp two weeks ago; there has been an incredible environment that’s been set. I think that’s part of the reason why they’re prepared to work so hard and fight for each other,” he said.
“We went to Bonderdag and played the Cheetahs and Pumas - there wasn’t that same environment because we hadn’t really spent much time together. But going into Craven Week, they had made serious inroads as a team with one another and had set themselves some goals. Both games we had to work incredibly hard and they came out almost getting into the final but doing themselves proud.”
Mention must be made of eighthman Marco Palvie, who scored two tries against EP in a barnstorming performance. Vowles coaches Palvie at Glenwood High School, and believes the number eight is an exciting prospect.
“He’s a very special player. I think he’s started to play his best Rugby fairly recently this year. He’s got all the attributes to be successful; he’s got a great skillset and speed. He’s incredibly physical and explosive and to go with that he’s a hell of a nice kid.”
“He understands what it takes to be successful; he works hard at his game and listens. I think he’s got a good future ahead of him. He still has a bit of a way to go in terms of conditioning and getting exactly where he needs to be but there is no doubt he can play top level rugby given his ability and attitude.”
Looking towards their final clash of the tournament against SWD, Vowles hopes to do the province proud in the 3rd/4th playoff tomorrow.
“We’ve been given the privilege of playing on the main field – we are only one of two games there tomorrow. The people involved have obviously seen value in the way we’ve played. So we want to end well, to finish 3rd in a Craven Week is pretty special – I don’t think a Natal side has done that in a while.”
KZN face SWD at 13h15 on Saturday.
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