Bulldogs’ chance to gain edge on Sharks

THE Border Bulldogs will go to war with the Sharks in an annual friendly game in Kokstad today.

This will be the East London franchise’s second-last friendly before the season starts.

They will play against the Southern Kings in their final warm-up game in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

Today’s encounter will be the third between the two sides in the annual fixture. Both sides have each won one game, so today one of them will go one up on the other.

The KwaZulu-Natal outfit are going to field fringe players, as their Super Rugby squad will also be in action, against the Cheetahs.

Bulldogs team manager David Reuters said they were looking forward to the game.

“This will be the third time that we will be playing against the Sharks in Kokstad. I do believe we have a slight edge over them because we still have the bulk of the team we had in 2014. But the Sharks are a more professional outfit than the Bulldogs,” he said.

The East London side will be without their captain Siya Mdaka and Blake Kyd. The flanker has been excused to attend a family event, while the prop will be tying the knot this weekend.

Other than the two, the Bulldogs comprise fully fit players.

Interim coach David Dobela described the game as being important.

“We will be using the game to build that winning culture in the team. We want to also finalise our combinations,” he said.

In the two friendly games that the Bulldogs have played so far, they lost against the Kings before they ran riot against the South Western Districts Eagles.

In the Eagles game, the Bulldogs’ poor defending against driving mauls, and their weakness in contesting lineouts were exposed.

Dobela said contesting lineouts, defending against driving mauls and doing better in the scrum were aspects they needed to work on.

The Bulldogs play their first game of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge against Boland at Zwide Stadium in Port Elizabeth on April 23.

The team have set themselves the target of improving on their impressive run last season, when they lost in the semifinals of the Currie Cup First Division.

The game against the Sharks will, to an extent, give Dobela the chance to assess whether his charges will be able to repeat last year’s heroics. Fixtures for tomorrow: U14 Kokstad v Creston (9.30am), U16 Kokstad v Creston (10.30am), Kokstad Development v Mount Ayliff (11.30am), Kokstad College v Creston (12.30pm), Kokstad v Harding (2pm), Sharks v Bulldogs (3pm), Kokstad v East London Buffaloes (5pm).