Progress, but home team loses
Despite a second defeat in as many matches in this year’s Currie Cup First Division competition, Border Bulldogs coach Tiger Mangweni is happy with the progress he has witnessed over the two games.
The Bulldogs were thumped 66-27 by the Valke in Kempton Park on the opening weekend, and then returned to East London this past Friday night where they went down 37-22 to the South Western District Eagles.
It was a closer match and the Bulldogs did show some good play, particularly in the second half where they outscored the visitors and could have brought themselves back into the game if they did not miss their opportunities.
“To be honest I saw a big improvement from the Valke game, especially our defence. We were in their [SWD] face the whole game and on attack, although we weren’t as clinical as I would have liked us to be, we were still looking more dangerous which is good,” admitted Bulldogs coach Mangweni.
“It was not the result we were wanting but I am proud of the guys because I feel they put in a lot of effort in the match.”
However, it is still two losses at the start of the competition and it means that their aspirations of making the knockout phase are already looking slim.
“We know it is going to be tough from here, but we believe we can still do it but we have to start by getting a win in our next game,” said Mangweni.
“We will be playing Boland away, they are always a tough team, especially at home, but if we are serious about making the knockouts we have to start winning.”
In the past weekend’s match against the Eagles it was a disastrous start by the Bulldogs that saw them 14-0 down after just three minutes.
Both teams were wearing a similar colour strip, and this could have led to some confusion in the early minutes before the Bulldogs changed their jersey.
“It is difficult to pin what went wrong, but I think the clash of jersey’s may have played a small part,” said Mangweni.