Border seek the big scalp
The Border women's rugby team kicked off an intense three-day training camp at the BCM Stadium on Wednesday as the girls gear up for the South African women's interprovincial competition final against Western Province on Saturday afternoon.
Border will be hosting their sixth final in a row and will be gunning to reclaim the title they lost to defending champs Province last year.
“The girls are very excited for the camp, they are looking forward to being together as a team up until the final and they are ready to put in the final touches to their preparation,” said Border women's head Mandisa Williams.
“Western Province is going to be a very tough match, but it is the match the team wanted because they lost to them in last year’s final, so the girls want to take their title back.”
The team was set to have a camp over the past weekend but plans changed after the team management decided to release most of the players for a Heritage tournament in Butterworth.
Only 11 players attended the camp at the stadium, with them getting through what they could.
“We had a couple of girls, but not the whole team as there was a Heritage Day tournament in Butterworth and we released most of the team to play in it to get some match practice,” explained Williams.
“The girls who we did have at the camp enjoyed their sessions, it was based on fitness and rucking because we know that Western Province will be targeting our ruck, but we didn't get into our structure because the full team wasn't here, so we got through what we could.
“But we felt it was very important for us to release most of the team to play in the Heritage tournament, in those tournaments you play at least two or three games, so we took it as an advantage for us and allowed the girls to get some much needed match practice, because coming into the weekend they are going to need that match fitness.”
Most of the players in the squad are fit and ready for the weekend, but there are a couple of injury concerns that have to be looked at over the coming days before a call is made on some players availability.
“We have a few concerns, our scrumhalf Yolanda Sana has a back injury from the Free State game, so we are still monitoring her and we were also hoping that Eloise Webb would be available for the final, but she is still carrying the injury so it looks like she is out,” said Williams.
“But the rest of the girls are fit and ready and motivated for the final.”
Western Province qualified for the final by thumping Eastern Province 47-5 in Cape Town over the past weekend to finish as runner-up on the log, so they will be carrying a lot of momentum into the final.
However, Border will go into the match as the only unbeaten team after they beat the 2017 champs 19-10 at the BCM Stadium in round three, so will take a lot of confidence from that result.