Bulldogs now curious onlookers
FATE is no longer in their own hands after the Border Bulldogs slipped to an agonising 43-38 defeat at the hands of the Eastern Povince Kings in their SuperSport Rugby Challenge match at the BCM Stadium on Thursday night.
It was the Bulldogs’ final group stage match of the competition, and despite them picking up two bonus points for scoring four tries and finishing within seven points of the Kings, they now rely on other results to go their way if they are to reach the quarterfinals.
“It’s very unfortunate that our fate is not in our own hands anymore,” said coach David Dobela.
“Everything was going well for us after the first half of the group stage and then we lost that match against Boland. We could have gone into the EP match with a much bigger lead, and then even lose this match. Now we have to rely on other teams doing the job for us and that is not what we want for Border.”
The Bulldogs sit two points ahead of the Kings on the South section log, and 10 ahead of the Boland Kavaliers. However, the Kings have one game in hand and the Kavaliers two.
The Bulldogs are probably just out of reach of the Kavaliers as they would need two bonus-point wins in their last two games to squeak past the Bulldogs on point difference, while the Kings just need to beat Boland in their last match next Saturday to qualify.
Even if they finish third on the log, the Bulldogs still have a slight chance of sneaking into the quarterfinals as one of the two best-placed third-place teams, but with the Cheetahs and Pumas well placed in that regard on the Central and North logs respectively, that would be an unlikely occurrence.
An ideal situation for the Bulldogs would be for the South Western District Eagles to beat the Kavaliers today and then Boland beating the Kings next weekend.
In the Kings match, Dobela believes a lack of big match temperament cost the Bulldogs in the end after they had stormed into a 28-14 lead after 22 minutes.
“I am proud of the guys for showing some guts and fighting spirit, but I feel we let EP into the game in the first half.
“We could have scored five or six tries in that period, but we made some mistakes,” Dobela explained.
“I think it was more anxiety. We did slip a number of tackles, but I feel if we could have stayed calm and were patient, we still have won.
“This is the second big game we have lost after last year’s First Division semifinal against the Griffons, and I think our big match temperament has been found wanting.
“I think the guys need to start learning how to control big match temperament games and get the big results when we need them.”
Despite the distinct possibility of not making the competition quarterfinals, Dobela claimed there was a silver lining in that the Bulldogs would be very well prepared for the Currie Cup First Division competition, which gets under way in August.
“If we don’t make the quarterfinals we will have a longer period to prepare for the First Division, so we will be able to work on our conditioning and some other things that we need to work on and we will be very ready when the First Division gets under way,” said Dobela. could