Ladies and gentlemen, have the Border Bulldogs begun a descent following their 28-3 loss at home against the Pumas at the weekend?
This is the question in the minds of Bulldogs supporters who braved the cold weather and came out in numbers to witness their provincial team getting whipped in what was their first blemish in the ongoing Currie Cup qualifiers season.
Border head coach Elliot Fana thinks not and has promised that his charges will rise again when they meet a rampant Griquas on Saturday.
The Bulldogs will not have it easy at all in the Griquas meeting, at least not with the below par performance they displayed against the Pumas.
Fana believes the loss to Pumas is not the end of the world. According to him, it was just a bad day at the office for the home side who were outplayed right from the opening whistle by determined Pumas who had come to East London to redeem themselves following a disappointing start to the season.
“A team does not become bad by losing just one match,” said Fana. “We need to regroup because that is what will make us stand up again and be counted.
“I cannot fault the commitment of my players because no one runs into the field with intentions of throwing the game away to the opposition. However, our attitude towards collisions in this match was not satisfactory at all because we were completely outplayed.”
The visitors coach, Hein Kriek, was pleased with the away win which he said was just the encouragement his team needed. “Coming here we were under pressure because our start to the season has not been the best and this win gave us the breather and we are quite pleased with it,” Kriek said.
“However, I believe we could have won by a much bigger score but we failed to take advantage of the many chances we had.”
The Bulldogs started the match on the back foot and spent the opening 30 minutes deep inside their 22m-line as they absorbed the heat inflicted by the visitors.
But it was in the 20th minute that Border took the lead courtesy of a a well-taken penalty kick by flyhalf Oliver Zono.
Unfortunately, that would be it for the home side in terms of scoring points. Just minutes before the interval, Pumas’ relentlessness paid off when Marcello Sampson crossed the try line and Justin van Staden made no mistake with the conversion kick making the score 7-3 going into the break.
Barely two minutes back from the break, Bulldogs’ clumsy play gave away a penalty to the visitors and Van Staden hit it nicely between the poles.
As if this was not enough, about 10 minutes later the Pumas broke through and substitute back Tyler Fisher sped along the right touch-line for five
points before Hennie Skorbinski, another replacement, put the final nail in the Border coffin a minute from time with a sensational try.
Bulldogs’ win streak ends
This is the question in the minds of Bulldogs supporters who braved the cold weather and came out in numbers to witness their provincial team getting whipped in what was their first blemish in the ongoing Currie Cup qualifiers season.
Border head coach Elliot Fana thinks not and has promised that his charges will rise again when they meet a rampant Griquas on Saturday.
The Bulldogs will not have it easy at all in the Griquas meeting, at least not with the below par performance they displayed against the Pumas.
Fana believes the loss to Pumas is not the end of the world. According to him, it was just a bad day at the office for the home side who were outplayed right from the opening whistle by determined Pumas who had come to East London to redeem themselves following a disappointing start to the season.
“A team does not become bad by losing just one match,” said Fana. “We need to regroup because that is what will make us stand up again and be counted.
“I cannot fault the commitment of my players because no one runs into the field with intentions of throwing the game away to the opposition. However, our attitude towards collisions in this match was not satisfactory at all because we were completely outplayed.”
The visitors coach, Hein Kriek, was pleased with the away win which he said was just the encouragement his team needed. “Coming here we were under pressure because our start to the season has not been the best and this win gave us the breather and we are quite pleased with it,” Kriek said.
“However, I believe we could have won by a much bigger score but we failed to take advantage of the many chances we had.”
The Bulldogs started the match on the back foot and spent the opening 30 minutes deep inside their 22m-line as they absorbed the heat inflicted by the visitors.
But it was in the 20th minute that Border took the lead courtesy of a a well-taken penalty kick by flyhalf Oliver Zono.
Unfortunately, that would be it for the home side in terms of scoring points. Just minutes before the interval, Pumas’ relentlessness paid off when Marcello Sampson crossed the try line and Justin van Staden made no mistake with the conversion kick making the score 7-3 going into the break.
Barely two minutes back from the break, Bulldogs’ clumsy play gave away a penalty to the visitors and Van Staden hit it nicely between the poles.
As if this was not enough, about 10 minutes later the Pumas broke through and substitute back Tyler Fisher sped along the right touch-line for five
points before Hennie Skorbinski, another replacement, put the final nail in the Border coffin a minute from time with a sensational try.
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