‘We are finding ways to beat teams’ – Marsh

SANLAM Boland Kavaliers captain Thurlow Marsh reckons he and his team are finding ways of beating teams in this year’s Carling Currie Cup Premier Division.

The Kavas fought back after trailing 12-7 at halftime at the Boland Stadium in Wellington to beat the Vodacom Bulls 28-20 on Sunday.

It was their third straight win at home after defeating the Toyota Cheetahs in the opening round and besting the Fidelity ADT Lions in the third round.

The three wins have seen Boland rise to second position on the Currie Cup log ahead of three away games, starting with Friday’s fifth round clash against the Airlink Pumas in Nelspruit.

According to Marsh, they never panicked after conceding two tries in an error-ridden first-half performance against the Bulls.

“Like coach Hawies Fourie said, our start to the game felt a bit rusty, and everyone felt a bit shaky. But I think after conceding the two tries, we remained calm. We did not look under pressure to me when we stood behind the poles; it was just a matter of time for us to remain calm and get back to what works and what we prepared for,” Marsh explained.

The Sanlam Boland Kavaliers then scored a powerful rolling maul try as hooker Sidney Tobias crashed over just before halftime to get the Kavas up and running.

Marsh continued: “The try we scored before halftime grew a new belief, especially into the forwards, because we saw here is a weakness we can begin to exploit.

“[Assistant] coach Pote [Human] then told us to do more of that even when we find ourselves further away from the red zone. We should maul them because it was their weakness, and the boys did it quite well.”

The Kavas did, however, find themselves playing with 14 and 13 men down after three yellow cards, but Marsh praised his side’s defensive work for not allowing the Bulls to add to the eight points the visitors scored in the second half.

“The game was so fast that we did not even feel as if we were playing with a player of players down, and that is the type of character that this team has,” he said.

The Police officer by day and rugby player on the weekend does, however, lament the fact that they were inaccurate in certain aspects of their game and pointed out: “At the beginning of the game, there was a bit of nerves, yes.

“Our work at the breakdowns was not that good, especially from our first phase attacks. We just could not get anything going.

“We go to a point where we forced a few things, but when our forwards got that first maul try at halftime, it gave us the belief.

“Our backs started understanding that they should allow us as forwards to get that dominance up front before they can start doing their thing out wide.”