Boland raise their heads above the parapet

MAYBE it was because DHL Western Province were too busy compiling a 100% win record in the South Pool of the inaugural SuperSport Rugby Challenge, but the Boland Cavaliers were a little on the anonymous side in last year’s competition.

Granted, being one of four teams battling to make the tournament’s playoffs by clawing at each other to finish second to Province by a country mile can make a team seem a little unremarkable, especially after finishing fourth of five teams, with just three wins from eight matches.

But there was something about Randall Modiba’s side at their opening Rugby Challenge game this season – a 51-24 win over the Border Bulldogs at the Wolfson Stadium festival in Port Elizabeth – that suggested flying under the radar in this competition may well be a thing of the past.

Having trailed Border by 17-5 at one stage, there must have been that nagging feeling of recent history repeating itself but, playing balanced rugby, they positively ran Border over in the second half.

“I actually have a firm belief in trusting our guys,” said Modiba. “We’d made soft errors, had been a bit impatient and got ahead of ourselves in the first half. But I knew if we settled down and stayed in the present, build from there and be patient, then everything would fall in place.

“Border did well to put us under enormous pressure in the first half, but all we needed to do was to focus on what we’re in control of, to be composed, clinical and to be system disciplined.”

Modiba said the key issues in that first half had been a lack of setpiece dominance, which had been the plan to contain Border’s dangerous backs.

“We didn’t tick those boxes in the first half, but we did get better in the second half. But again there were a couple of unforced errors in defence – running out of numbers and getting in too tight, especially around the rucks. We need to work hard on that stuff before we play our next opponents.”

Modiba said having older heads in the team like former Super Rugby campaigners Elgar Watts and Ryno Benjamin helped: “They are playing a huge role in terms of guiding guys in the same direction in terms of our team culture, ethos and our technical systems.

“They are playing an enormous role in getting the guys’ heads where they should be, so to have them is definitely a huge positive for us. The input they make is good value and the youngsters learn a lot from them.”

Having flown under the radar in their first season under their coach last season, Modiba said things should look up this year: “The majority of the team are in year two of the programme with me, so we have more mature guys in terms of on-field relationships, there’s continuity and the balance in terms of selection is where I want it.

“The next step for us now is consistency, learning from our mistakes week in and week out. and growing from that. We don’t just want to be competitive. We want to try and lead and challenge the top teams for those top spots. It’s early but our vision is to get ourselves in a good position in this group.” —