Coach Coetzee Highlights Lessons Learnt From Valke Defeat Ahead of Semi-Final Clash.
The EP Elephants endured a tough day at the office when going down to a 22-3 defeat against the table-topping Valke in their Currie Cup First Division match played on Friday, July 11, 2025, at Madibaz Stadium in Gqeberha.
The loss, marked by play in tough conditions and set-piece struggles, ended the Elephants’ home campaign, but Coach Allister Coetzee remains focused on the upcoming semi-final against the NovaVit Griffons away from home this Saturday.
Coetzee, reflecting post-match, acknowledged it was a subpar performance by his team.
“It was probably one of our, let’s say, “not so good” performances of the season so far. It just showed me once again the difference between us and really powerful teams like the Valke – they were really good. They put us under set-piece pressure and adapted much better to the conditions than we did,” he said.
“Obviously, when you dominate the set piece in terrible conditions like last Friday’s, you’ve got 50% of the game already and they were really dominant at scrum time. We conceded four scrum penalties so that gave them the edge. We also lost the gain line battle. We were put under a lot of pressure, and we didn’t respond well. We did still create some opportunities though, but we couldn’t finish those. The boys’ skillset under pressure couldn’t hold up. It was mistake after mistake, penalty after penalty – we conceded 13 of those. Discipline hurt us further when we again got a yellow card – this was basically due to the pressure of their powerful pack”, he added.
Despite the loss, Coetzee gave credit to the Valke: “They were the better side on the day. We’ve just got to put this one in the bin and move on to the semi-final. You know, that’s what playoffs give you, another chance. So there’s another shot against the Griffons this weekend and hopefully the boys will show better intent.”
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Author: Daron Mann
