Fourie: Ill-discipline killed us

Discipline and defence. Those were the key aspects mentioned in the build-up to the Currie Cup Final.

On both counts the Sharks outplayed Western Province, to record a 33-19 win in the Currie Cup Final at Newlands at the weekend.

Province captain Deon Fourie admitted that his team was also undone by the high error-count.

"We said during the week, finals are won by the team making the least number of mistakes," Fourie said, adding: "We were very disappointing with that part of our game - we went out of structure."

He was full of praise for the opposition, saying they put WP under pressure with their kicking game.

However, he felt it was "ill-discipline" that killed the home team.

Fourie also spoke of the Sharks well-executed game plan.

"They put us in our half [with kicks] and then we made mistakes in our half," the Province skipper said.

"We just couldn't get out of it [our half] and that put us under [more] pressure, especially after going behind [0-10] in the first 10 minutes."

Fourie said the senior Springboks in the Sharks team also played a huge role in the Final.

"They play Test rugby and know what the situation is," he said of the pressure that comes with big Cup finals.

"This was like a Test match," he said, adding: "It is tough to go 10 points down in the first 10 minutes, especially in a Final.

"To then come back, with the pressure that was applied, along with their tactics, made it tough to close the gap.

"They [also] came with a new tactics.

"We didn't expect it and credit to them - they did their analysis and they were spot-on."

By Jan de Koning, at Newlands