Rampant Elephants hailed
MARAUDING fullback Michael Botha has paid tribute to the hard work of his EP Elephants teammates after they trampled the Border Bulldogs 26-14 at Mdantsane’s Sisa Dukashe Stadium on Sunday.
Rising star Botha, invited to train with the Southern Kings PRO14 squad, scored a try and was a thorn in the flesh of the Bulldogs with his punishing forays into enemy territory.
It was a first win of the season for the Elephants, who lost their previous six SuperSport Rugby Challenge matches on the trot.
“I have to give credit to the team – the boys put in a lot of hard work. I could not have done it without them,” Botha said.
“Something I pride myself on is the counterattack from the back.
“Full marks to our scrumhalf [JP Smith] and flyhalf [Ruben de Vos] who gave us the little dinks and everything. It all seemed to bounce our way against the Bulldogs,” he said. Apart from Botha’s try, there were also five pointers from Xandre Vos, Anele Lungisa and Riaan Arends as EP turned the tables on Border.
When the Elephants faced the Bulldogs in the opening round of the competition, the East London side emerged narrow 22-17 winners.
Though EP are out of the running for a place in the playoffs, they can lift themselves off the foot of the table with a win over the Boland Cavaliers in their last game of the season on Saturday.
In the earlier game played at Sisa Dukashe, Griquas beat the Sharks 38-34 to stay top of the Central Section standings.
“Obviously we’re delighted. We seem to rise and play well in the big games,” Griquas coach Peter Engledow said.
“No disrespect to the other teams, but we played well against the Free State last week.”
“We lost five players, but the guys that have been training with us since November, guys like Lux [Luxolo Ntsepe], Godfrey [Ramaboea] and Tythan [Adams] stood up in the back three.
Engledow said he had pulled some of his senior players aside and let them know that he was relying on them. Few responded better than inside centre Jonathan Francke.
“I was very happy for Johnny Francke. He’s getting a bit long in the tooth.”
The result means the Free State XV have it all to do against the Sharks XV in their effort to qualify for the playoffs, as the Sharks will reportedly have as close to their Super Rugby starting lineup as possible in preparation for that tournament’s resumption in a fortnight.