Cape Town – Western Province coach John Dobson hit out at his side for not respecting the blue and white jersey after the 32-27 defeat to the Sharks on Saturday.

Province got their Currie Cup campaign off to a winning start with a 20-5 victory over the Blue Bulls at Newlands the week before, but Dobson was at a loss as to why his team ‘were so flat’ at Kings Park this weekend past.

“I don’t know why we were so flat‚” Dobson said.

“Our body language from the start was not good and we were well beaten in the kicking game. Curwin Bosch and Rhyno Smith were exceptional in pinning us back.

“We missed a lot of touch kicks and our exit game was poor. There were some positives such as our set pieces and breakdown work‚ but as Western Province we pride ourselves on our passion of playing for the blue and white hoops‚ and today we didn’t have that,” he said.

“We knew the Sharks would bounce back after last week – they are too good not to. We knew we were in for a tough game. I didn’t expect us to roll over quite like that.

“Unions like ours want to host play-off games so we can’t afford another loss in this shorter campaign.”

Western Province will be up against the Golden Lions at Newlands on Saturday.

Kick-off is at 17:15.