The Border Bulldogs’ habit of capitulating in the last 40 minutes of their SA Cup fixtures came under the spotlight again as they squandered a good first-half performance and ended up losing 52-3 to the Boland Kavaliers at Police Park Stadium in East London on Saturday.
The Bulldogs had a decent all-round first two quarters of the game, enjoying the upper hand in the scrums, line-outs and a share of the go-forward.
The early indications were a big improvement from their century defeat to the Pumas in the previous round.
This got the crowd behind them as they made life hard for the Kavaliers to gain momentum over the advantage line.
Boland still managed to get in three tries and a conversion in the opening spell while Border replied with a penalty goal by Maxwell Klaasen.
There was a belief in the change room at halftime with the score at 17-3, as per head coach Dumisani Mhani and numerous players who spoke with the publication after the game.
The talk at the break involved starting the second stanza well.
For that to happen, they needed to limit individual mistakes, especially handling errors, and have proper decision-making in the opposition’s half.
But none of that materialised.
The failure to execute those aspects in the second half resulted in Boland adding another 35 points after the break as Border’s resistance crumbled and they returned to default settings.
The Kavaliers piled on the pressure to score six more tries in this comfortable away win, which was their third of the campaign.
Sydney Tobias helped himself to two maul tries while James Tedder and Ashlon Davids each succeeded with three conversions.
“We had a good first half,” Mhani said.
“We competed well, but we couldn’t convert our chances into points, especially in their 22m. We couldn’t finish. We either threw the ball away or dropped it,” Mhani said.
“It is these mistakes that are costing us. We have a system, but we have not stuck to it. We gave them the game.
“We need to work hard on that aspect of the game where we have to focus and concentrate in terms of our consistency,” he said.
The Bulldogs’ next game is against Eastern Province at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane in two weeks’ time, and they will need to regroup with three games left in the campaign.
The Eastern Cape derby is an opportunity for the Border team, who are in last place on the log with only two points, to finally register a win.
EP have also had a fair share of struggles in the competition and are in the same boat, though they have chalked up two wins in their six outings. They lost 70-17 to the Griquas in Kimberley at the weekend.
Like Border, former Springboks head coach Allister Coetzee’s charges gave an unimpressive showing in the second half of the game and allowed Griquas to score eight more tries to add to their two in the first half.
The teams had seemed closer matched initially, with Griquas edging it 14-10 at the break.
Daily Dispatch
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