Elephants to clip Eagles’ wings
AFTER a tough opening game in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge tournament against champions Western Province, EP Elephants coach Ryan Felix is hoping life starts getting a bit easier tomorrow.
Last week EP’s weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed by WP who ran in nine tries during their emphatic 59-12 win at the Wolfson Stadium in Kwazakhele.
Tomorrow they will be up against a SWD Eagles side who failed to win any of their eight games last season and who had a bye last weekend.
This game will kick-off at 12.15pm and is a curtain-raiser to the Southern Kings versus Cheetahs Pro14 clash at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
“The other teams will look at what we did in our opening game, and they will try and apply the same pressure on us,” Elephants coach Ryan Felix said.
“We faced WP team of seasoned campaigners team and some of them have played at the highest level. We are not going to slack down and we will try to improve against the Eagles.
“One thing about the WP game was that our scrumming was solid and I am happy about that.
“The first problem we had was that we lacked some game time against WP.
“The second thing was our defensive effort was bad and we did not have good line speed to put Western Province under pressure.
“Thirdly, WP is a good championship-winning team who are well coached. They have been together for two or three years and were unbeaten last year.
“Here and there we had some good chances, but on the other hand, our decision-making was also very bad.”
Felix said his team were working hard to register a first win of the campaign.
“I told the players the defeat against Western Province was not the end of the world and it was our first game together as group.
“There are positives we can take out of the game going forward.
“In defence the structure is there, but we lacked line speed. We were sitting and waiting for the opposition to attack us.”
The EP coach said he would be fielding a new- look team against the Eagles which will be led by Siya Mdaka.
“I hope things get a bit easier this week because the Eagles did not play last week and we have a game under the belt,” said Felix.
Eagles coach Rynhardt van As has high hopes for the new season.
“We’ve prepared well, we’ve got a good squad with a lot of good youngsters,” said Van As. Tomorrow’s teams are: Eastern Province Elephants: Keanu Vers; Riaan Arendse, Siyanda Grey, Nkululeko Marwana, Spu Msutwana; Henrique Olivier, Rowan Gouws; Freddie Ngoza, Siya Mdaka (capt), Bakkies Brown, Anele Lungisa, Wynand Grassmann, Ettienne Swanepoel, Allandre van Rooyen, Xander Vos.
Reserves: Mbeko Kota, Dewald Barnard, Johan van Wyk, Singisa April, Freddie Muller, Ruben de Vos, Tiaan Stander.
SWD Eagles: Leighton Eksteen; Vuyo Mboto, Kirsten Heyns, Marlou van Niekerk, Marlo Wiech; Divan Nel, Dillan Snel; Fabian Booyen (capt), Nocolaas Immelman, Janneman Stander, Cornell Hess, Wiehan Hay, Basil Short, Jacques Vermaak, Teunis Nieuwoudt.
Reserves: Le Roux Baard, Deald Dekker, Vukile Sofisa, Ruben Schoeman, Wayne Wilschut, Robbie Petzer, Tyler Fisher.
Kick-off: 12.15pm