Paarwater thrilled with Xaba effort in WP win over Pumas

Western Province coach Jerome Paarwater was absolutely thrilled with the effort of his captain Nama Xaba, who was in superb form and deservedly named man of the match as they edged the Pumas 23-17 in their Currie Cup match in Mbombela on Friday night.

It was just Province’s second win of the campaign, while the result was a big blow to the Pumas’ efforts of making it into the competition play-offs.

Province enjoyed a decent first half, but it was in the second half which they were under siege for most of it, that Xaba rose to the occasion with an amazing performance at the breakdown.

He constantly stole the ball and made an absolute menace of himself whenever the Pumas were on attack in a good position and managed to disrupt their play just enough to not allow them to gain the upper hand.

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“He’s a smart guy with a very good work ethic. He spends an hour after every training session working on his breakdown work and you saw (against the Pumas) how it paid off. He is the only guy I give full freedom to go and poach the ball,” explained Paarwater.

“But he’s really a class guy, I have known him since he was 18 years old, worked in the U21s with him and the good thing is he’s putting Deon Fourie under pressure and that’s what the Stormers guys want. For our guys to put their guys under pressure.

“He’s also a very good leader on and off the field and we are lucky to have him.”

Contentious finish

Overall it was an extremely tough match for Province, with them put under massive pressure in  the second half, with them having to rely heavily on their defence and Xaba’s ball stealing abilities to get them out of trouble time and again.

It then could have been an extremely contentious end to the match as with less than a minute left on the clock the Pumas kicked the ball into the Province 22m, and the floodlights went out due to loadshedding.

Province had picked up the ball and in the darkness were then penalised for sealing off, giving the Pumas a penalty in their 22m.

After the lights then came back on a few minutes later the match resumed with the Pumas kicking to the corner, but they were unable to capitalise as another turn over ended the match.

“It was tough but I think it was a good game of rugby and we really needed this result,” admitted Paarwater.

“There was a minute left when the lights went off, and we thought it was an easy exit because the lights are off and the game was stopped with us ahead. But we were sportsmen and said we would play on.”