Border back in the thick of things against Kavaliers
THE Border Bulldogs are back in action this weekend as they take on the Boland Kavaliers in the Supersport Rugby Challenge in Ceres on Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs are coming off their first bye weekend of the season and having won three of their four group stage matches so far they will want to pick up where they left off with another good performance.
“It was a good off weekend for the guys, they had a good rest and I think they are raring to go for the match against Boland this weekend,” said Border rugby coach David Dobela.
“After starting the season for four games on the trot, this bye weekend came at the perfect time for the team, and we welcomed back a fresh and fit squad earlier this week.”
Border sit second on the South section log on 15 points, five behind the unbeaten Western Province team and five ahead of the Eastern Province Kings in third.
Another victory for the team will put them in a very strong position on the log and should give them heaps of confidence.
“The guys really want to win, being second on the log and with the guys chasing close behind us the players feel that we need another win to stretch our lead and give us some breathing room,” claimed Dobela.
“If we can get a positive result it will put us one step further towards the quarterfinals.”
The Bulldogs played the Kavaliers in the first game of the season last month in PE and just came through 28-25 after a nailbiting finish.
Border were comfortably ahead in the closing stages before a good fightback from the Kavaliers made it an exciting last couple of minutes and the Bulldogs will want a more comfortable outcome this time.
“This is the first time that we are playing in Ceres, so it will be an interesting challenge and the guys are looking forward to it,” said Dobela.
“Boland are always a tough opponent and they pushed us all the way in the first match, so we will have to make sure we are on top of our game.
“But we did make a few mistakes in the first match, especially letting them back into the game towards the end, so we will be looking to make sure we don't do that again this time.”
Following the Boland game the Bulldogs will head back home for a festival of rugby where they will be taking on the log leading Province next week. It will be a massive day of rugby with a huge club match between Swallows and Winter Rose kicking the day off, followed by the EP Kings up against the South Western District Eagles and then Border v WP to end off the day.
“We need another win to take a lot of confidence and momentum into our home match against Western Province next week,” said Dobela. “It is going to be a massive match and we want to be in a really good position on the log and full of confidence when we face them.”
The Boland match kicks off this Saturday at 3pm.