Aplon '50-50' for Griquas game

Western Province could be without star fullback Gio Aplon when they take on Griquas in a must-win Currie Cup clash at Newlands on Saturday.

Aplon sustained a hip injury in the weekend's loss to the Lions and WP coach Kobus van der Merwe on Monday gave him a "50-50" chance of playing.

"Joe Pietersen is our back-up at fullback. We won't take a chance with Gio unless he's 100 percent," said Van der Merwe.

Aplon was one of 12 walking wounded in the WP camp on Monday. Apart from Zhahier Ryland, who is definitely out, Corné Uys, Naas Olivier, Bolla Conradie, Luke Watson, Andries Bekker, Ross Skeate, Selborne Boome, Francois van der Merwe, Brock Harris and JD Moller were also nursing niggles.

Rather than take the players on to the field, Van der Merwe held an extended video session in which all the shortcomings of the performance over the weekend were laid bare.

"We'll have a good, full-contact defensive session (Tuesday). It's very important that we sort out our defence. It was not just Sarel Potgieter who was guilty of poor defence against the Lions. Our alignment at the back during first phase was very poor. We were beaten out wide way too easily," said the coach.

Province want to draft Werner Greeff into their starting line-up at inside centre and move Uys to No 13 this week. Greeff has been out injured since early in the Super 14, but could end up providing WP with important stability at a critical stage of their season.

However, they were also preparing on Monday for the possibility of being without him as he has to face a disciplinary hearing on Thursday night following his dismissal in a club match last week.

Should Greeff be suspended, Sireli Naqelevuki is likely to join Uys in midfield, with Pietersen or Egon Seconds starting on the wing.

In the event of Aplon and Greeff both dropping out of the picture, Gus Theron may even come back into the mix.

The benefit of an added day's rest should give WP a clearer picture of where they stand on the injury front. However, it's going to be high-intensity stuff on Tuesday morning.

"It will be the last opportunity we have for a physical contact session. We haven't had them often this season and it's beginning to show. Our defensive principles and workrate were poor (against the Lions)," said assistant coach Gary Gold.

"We were focused on getting the bonus point for four tries, but we have to maintain a balance between that and stopping our opponents."

The high intensity anticipated in today's training session at Bellville leaves the obvious question of whether WP are not risking more injuries before the play-offs. However, the feeling is that the potential benefits of sharpening up the side outweigh the risks.

Griquas are a good enough team to exploit obvious weaknesses in the WP line-up. They also have plenty to play for despite the fact that they can no longer make the semifinals.

Van der Merwe, after all, left them to join WP. He also raided their ranks to sign up hooker Tiaan Liebenberg during the Currie Cup campaign.

"There will definitely be some needle," said Van der Merwe. "Griquas have nothing to lose and that makes them very dangerous."

Gold echoed that view. "We've spoken at length about the danger of taking Griquas lightly," he said. "It will be the highlight of their season if they beat us."

Failure to do that could result in the unthinkable - not making the semifinals. Time to get cracking on that defensive session, boys.