Ending the season with a victory will be the priority for the Border Bulldogs when they take on the SWD Eagles in their final round-robin Carling Currie Cup First Division encounter at Police Park in East London on Saturday (3pm), head coach Lumumba Currie says.
It has been rough sailing for the Bulldogs this season as they are rooted bottom of the Combined and Promotion Barometer (SA teams only) logs, with a minus-239 point difference, without a single point.
Currie said he wanted to see an improvement from his side in the SWD game after they suffered a disappointing 27-8 defeat at home last Saturday.
“It was a very decent week in the camp,” Currie said.
“What we focused on was to address the mistakes we made against Boland. Finishing let us down in that game.
“We visited the Boland 22m countless times in the first 20 minutes but came back empty-handed, that played a part in the negative result we got.
“We want to see improvement in that aspect of the game against the Eagles so that we put ourselves in a better position to win.
“It will be our last game, we will give it our best shot so that we can build on something positive for next season,” he said.
Currie has made changes to the starting 15 and promoted four players who came from the bench in the previous game against Boland, in addition to the surprise inclusion of Border U20 loose-forward Hugo Bronkhorst on the bench.
“We want to put ourselves on the front foot,” he said.
“We don’t want to be playing a catch-up game against the Eagles, and the guys we promoted came in against Boland last Saturday and made a difference in the second half.
“Our plan is to bring Ntabeni Dukisa in at inside centre. His experience is needed at 12.
“You could see the way we played in the second half of the previous game, there was control when he was at 12.
“The communication was better between him and Keith Chiwara.
“Bronkhorst’s performances in the junior team were immense and we elevated him to the senior team.
“We were impressed by his physicality.”
The Eagles will be licking their wounds as they are coming off a 42-27 defeat at the hands of Georgian outfit Black Lion and will look to shrug off the Bulldogs to also finish the season convincingly.
The match will be streamed live on the SuperSport Schools channel on YouTube.
The Border team is: Lwandile Maphuko, Mihlali Nobomvu, Mihlali Nchukana, Ntabeni Dukisa, Lutho Adonis, Keith Chiwara, Anele Zweni, Yamnkela Mzozoyana, Chuma Biyana, Onke Dubase, Likho Ndiyalwa, Ayanda Nomboyo, Sibabalo Mnkani, Vuyisani Mavuso, Kuhle Seteni. Replacements: Mkhonto Caku-Caku, Ntsika Daka, Edwin Nxumalo, Azola Mati, Hugo Bronkhorst, Eric Mcaphukana, Siphosenkosi Nofemele, Lelethu Gcilitshana.
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