Elephants need to tame Bulldogs – or get bitten

An exciting provincial derby is on the cards at the Buffalo City Stadium on Friday night as the Border Bulldogs take on fierce home rivals the Eastern Province Elephants in their Currie Cup First Division clash.

It will be the third meeting between the two sides this year – they met twice in the SuperSport rugby challenge, and managed a win each.

With this, the first meeting in the First Division, it is all set to be a fantastic occasion as the teams battle it out for glory.

“It is always a big game against EP,” Bulldogs coach Tiger Mangweni said.

“They haven't had a good run in the competition so far, but we know when they play us that everyone has to step up their game because it is going to be a battle.

“We will not [underestimate] them. In the SuperSport challenge we beat them once,

The Bulldogs will head into the match on a high after beating the Boland Cavaliers last weekend

but in the next game they were the clinical side and [won], so we are level this year.

“We must take them seriously. We don't have a point to prove. We just want to win the game, to [collect] the points.”

The Bulldogs will head into the match on a high after beating the Boland Cavaliers last weekend.

They suffered two losses at the start of the season, so they will be eager to stay on the winning track.

The Elephants, on the other hand, have lost both games played so far and had a bye last weekend, so they will be desperate to win, knowing that another loss would most likely leave them too far off the pace for a playoff spot.

“We did very well to get the win last week and we need to transfer that performance to this week.

“If we can get another win we will keep our goal of making the playoffs alive,” Mangweni said.

With good weather expected, fans could be in for a freeflowing, exciting game.

Both teams have exhilarating attacking players and should look to play the width of the field as they aim to exploit each other’s defence.

“Both teams like to run the ball. I think it is going to be a game of running rugby,” Mangweni said.

“We will have to put pressure on them with ball in hand.

“We also have to be clever about where we play the game.

“We must not play too much in our own half.”

The action kicks off at 7pm.